Chair’s introduction to governance
Committed to good governance
During the year we have made the commitment that by 2024, we will have at least 33% female representation on our Board and at least one person of colour. Although this is best practice for FTSE 350 companies, we will commit to this target regardless of which share index we are in.
Chris Stone Non-Executive Chair
2020/21 highlights • Continued to hear from our designated NED for workforce engagement who reports to every Board meeting • Supported management in the major acquisition of Iron Mountain’s Intellectual Property Management (IPM) business which will now form part of our Global Software Resilience division • Obtained a better understanding of our stakeholders and how we engage with them • An increased focus on ESG matters • Kept normal Board meetings and strategy day scheduled during lockdown with no meetings cancelled 2021/22 priorities • Continuing to focus on our stakeholders, particularly colleague engagement • Restarting off-site and overseas Board meetings to support better engagement with all colleagues • A focus on diversity around the Board table with our commitment to gender and ethnic diversity by 2024 • Continuing to focus on succession planning and diversity and inclusion amongst our wider colleague population
Dear Shareholder The last year has been one of unprecedented upheaval and disorder from the Covid-19 pandemic reaching all parts of the globe and significantly impacting economies everywhere. We as a Board had a very busy year dealing with the impact of the pandemic on the Group and also considering its impact on all of our stakeholders. It is worth noting that we have taken no government subsidies or loans (other than deferring tax payments), nor have we made any colleagues redundant or furloughed them during the pandemic. We continued to pay dividends, in line with our policy, throughout the year. We have also been engaged with the Executive Team in ensuring that all of our colleagues received the best support we could give them, specific to each of their individual needs, to manage in these new and changed circumstances. I have been very impressed by the depth and quality of the colleague support programme that the team has delivered. The Board is committed to creating and maintaining a culture where strong levels of governance thrive throughout the organisation, specifically ensuring that we send out consistent messages on our values and acceptable behaviours for our colleagues, our customers, our suppliers and our advisers.
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