CISI | The Power of Many: A Discussion on Board Practice
Open-ended discussion between professional practitioners on the challenges and opportunities of enhanced engagement in governance.
The English poet, John Donne, famously wrote “No man is an island.” Updating, and repurposing, this perennial truth, one can state, “No wo/man is a board of directors.” As a body collective that has joint and several legal liabilities as well as shared reputational risk, all members of the board must be ready, willing, and able to provide ‘constructive challenge and critical review’ between themselves and, especially, in relation to management in order to meet EBA/ESMA requirements.
As a result, a board of directors must nurture the policy and practice that ensures they are serving as a team and not a one wo/man show. Therefore, discussions must be held, and decisions made, without fear or favour – including the professional fortitude to dissent regardless of any possible dynamics and ‘power plays’ that may impact a person, either consciously or subconsciously.
The Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI) National Committee is holding an event for senior executives and board members to hear more about this critically important expectation with a view to learning from each other on how to best nurture the right culture and hone related best practice.
Learning Objective
During this session:
– Deep dive into challenges and opportunities of enhanced engagement in governance.
– Understand how to enable board of directors to provide ‘constructive challenge and critical review’ between themselves and, especially, in relation to management in order to meet EBA/ESMA requirements.
– Learn how to nurture the policy and practice that ensures board of directors are serving as a team and not a one wo/man show.
Event Schedule
16:30 | Arrival, registration, refreshments
16:45 | Presentations, Discussion and Q&A
17:45 | Refreshments and networking
18:15 | Close
Moderator and Speakers
Emilios Tannousis | Moderator
With over 20 years of experience, Emilios brings extensive knowledge and expertise in wealth and asset management for both private and institutional investors. Emilios is a Partner, Wealth Management at Gravity Private Wealth catering for family wealth and institutional investment strategies. Emilios, headed the Wealth Management Units at Bank of Cyprus, the Asset Management unit at LFS, managing the teams dedicated in serving, private and Institutional clients, including AIF & UCITS funds, the pension industry, the insurance industry, and investment companies.
Emilios holds a BSc (Honours) in Economics & Finance from the University of Indianapolis, USA, and an MSc in Economic Development & International Finance from the University of Reading, UK. He is a Fellow Charter Certified Accountant (FCCA), member of ICPAC Cyprus, founding member of CIFA and member of the Charter Institute of Securities and Investments. Emilios is currently the Chair of the CIFA HR & Training Committee and serves as member of the CISI National Advisory Council in Cyprus.
George Theocharides | CySEC Chairman Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
Dr. George Theocharides (BΕng (Hons), MBA, PhD) is the Chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). He is also the Chairman of the Risk Standing Committee (RSC). The RSC is part of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the successor of Committee for the Economic and Markets Analysis (CEMA), for which Dr. Theocharides served also as Chairman, between March and December 2022. He served as CySEC’s Vice Chairman from July 2020 to September 2021 and was previously a CySEC Board member. He has extensive experience working in the wider financial sector. From September 2010 until July 2020, he held the position of Associate Finance Professor at the Cyprus International Institute of Management (CIIM) and Director of the MSc in Financial Services Programme.
Prior to joining CIIM, he worked as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Sungkyunkwan University of South Korea from 2006 to 2010. In 2006, he also worked as an International Faculty Fellow at the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the past, he served as a member of the Interim Board of Bank of Cyprus, Chairman of the Board of the Cyprus Blockchain Technologies Ltd, among others.
Petros Florides | Chartered FCSI & CISI Cyprus, CISI Board Member, co-founder of NAC
Petros Florides has over 25 years of financial services experience in the areas of private banking, fund management, stockbroking, private equity, proprietary trading and microfinance. He is an Honours graduate in Accountancy and holds a number of professional qualifications, including: Chartered Director; Chartered Management Accountant; Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (‘CISI’); Certified Member and holder of the Governance Specialist Qualification of the Institute for Risk Management. He is currently employed by World Vision International as Senior Director of Global Governance for the regions of Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australasia. Petros has published numerous articles on governance and related areas, and was the lead author of the Code for Public Sector Governance which, after five years of public consultation, was approved by the Cyprus Council of Ministers in July 2019.
Petros also serves as a Non-Executive Director – either as Char of the Board or Audit Committee – of companies within the industries of financial services, fintech and digital solutions. He has also served on the CISI Board of Trustees (UK) since June 2019, and is Co-Founder and Past-President of the CISI Cyprus National Advisory Council. Petros successfully completed: the Certified Sustainability (ESG) Practitioner Advanced Program (approved by the Chartered Management Institute) in 2021; and, the PRI Academy courses in Applied Responsible Investment and Responsible Investment for Trustees. In addition, Petros has represented the Cyprus Institute of Directors on various fora of the European Community Directors Association (‘ecoDa’). Petros is accredited in two different methods of psychometric testing that he uses to integrate an understanding of human behaviour in his teaching of professional and bespoke executive courses in the areas of governance, risk, leadership, sustainability and ethics through CISI Accredited Training Providers and other prestigious institutions.
He is also a regular speaker and panelist at public events on the same subjects. Petros is also a founding member of the Advisory Council for the Centre for Good Governance.”