Topics include:

• Leading practice board processes including board assessment, performance evaluation and committee design
• Culture including board-CEO/management relations and intra-board dynamics
• Decision-making frameworks
• APRA governance, culture and accountability reviews

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

• Bring up-to-date knowledge on board culture and governance to the board table
• Apply leading practice board processes which are fit for purpose
• Apply decision-making frameworks to enhance board effectiveness and member outcomes
• Contribute to a positive and engaged board culture
• Manage difficult relationships

Topics include:

Day 2 deep dive: Investment governance frameworks and how to ensure you focus on what’s important in turbulent times

• Investment governance arrangements:  effective decision making and efficient delegation
• Emerging trends in portfolio implementation and monitoring: stress testing/scenario analysis, liquidity management and valuations
• Decision-making in the best financial interest of members as the regulatory environment changes

Day 2 deep dive: lifting the bar on environmental, social and governance (ESG) and climate change related (CCR) risks

• The regulator’s view on ESG/CCR risk: current and future guidance
• Member and stakeholder expectations
• Establishing investment beliefs that specifically relate to ESG and/or CCR risks
• Developing an ESG/Responsible Investment (RI) roadmap

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

• Analyse the key components of an investment governance framework including fund investment philosophy and beliefs
• Assess the appropriateness of the investment governance arrangements
• Enhance portfolio implementation and monitoring, especially in key areas of stress testing and liquidity management
• Apply ESG and climate change policy design considerations and trade-offs
• Develop a fit-for-purpose ESG/RI roadmap
• Consider trade-offs for investment manager remuneration structures
• Oversee the selection and assessment of investment managers including when to terminate an underperforming manager
• Implement effective investment committee operation, including how to manage investment committee agendas, meetings and papers

Topics include:

• What does risk governance, including reporting, look like when it is working well?
• Case studies on a modified risk report and the connection of risk and member outcomes
• Emerging risk issues
• Reflections on risk governance approaches with a CRO or a chair of a fund risk committee
• Technology risk deep dive and case study
• Vendor risk management deep dive and case study

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

• Analyse the maturity of your three lines of defense
• Elevate your risk culture to the next level
• Ensure that risk management is appropriately embedded into decision making
• Encourage excellence in board risk reporting and ensure risk committee meetings are effective
• Oversee technology risks – what board members need to be on top of
• Anticipate and oversee the range of current and emerging vendor risks​

Topics include:

• Enhance the board’s contribution to strategy and planning
• When and how to consider an M&A
• How to foster strategic conversations
• The changing superannuation landscape and implications for strategy (including demographic change and implications from policy changes)
• Inputs and processes for effective strategic decision-making regarding products and services
• Strategy implementation, measurement, and monitoring

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

• Ensure role clarity between board and management in strategy formulation, implementation, and monitoring
• Leverage the range of strategy tools to effectively assess competition, market dynamics & the business environment
• Oversee an effective merger process​
• (Trustee Director networking dinner)

This module will:

• Put into practice what you have learned
• Consist of a mock board meeting which will include decision-making about a set of complex issues and a reflection

By the end of this module participants will be able to:

• Consolidate the lessons from the course into practical decision-making
• Improve your capacity to understand and shape board outcomes
• Practice techniques to manage difficult conversations​