Deputy Company Secretary at Plan International

ROLE PURPOSE

The Deputy Company Secretary is a member of the Governance and Executive team. You will lead and be responsible for delivering the governance support service to the governing bodies of Plan International (its International Board and its three standing committees, the Members’ Assembly and its two standing committees and any ad hoc committees) and deliver, together with the Company Secretary and your fellow Deputy, an effective company administration and secretariat service. You will also advise staff and governors on the corporate governance processes and requirements applicable to Plan International’s work.

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE

Ensuring Plan International, Inc.’s governing bodies are well supported both logistically and in terms of the management of their business within and outside of meetings

• Working with the Company Secretary, Deputy Company Secretary, and Governance Assistant, providing professional governance support service to the Members’ Assembly, the International Board, and their committees, supporting the development and implementation of their workplans and meeting cycles, ensuring that action logs are followed up.
• Working closely with the Executive Office to ensure there is effective planning and coordination across the governance and the management decision making bodies to ensure effective decision making, implementation and communication internally and externally.
• Developing and ensuring the maintenance and implementation of systems, processes and procedures that give rise to efficient governance and decision making by the governing bodies according to good governance standards and well-coordinated with management bodies.
• Ensuring coordination and quality controlling the finalisation and distribution of agendas and papers and ensuring that they are clear and consistently drafted in line with good governance practice

Supporting the Company Secretariat team in providing an effective company administration/ secretariat service

• Implementing requirements to achieve compliance of Plan International, Inc. and its subsidiaries with applicable legal and constitutional requirements and managing and maintaining associated reporting procedures, including meeting internal requirements and practices and external regulatory requirements and ensuring other functions are doing the same.
• Maintaining high quality, accurate governance records in line with applicable legal requirements, and good governance and decision-making practice
• Managing all requests for Powers of Attorney and drafting and issuing these in line with the scheme of delegation, ensuring legal advice is obtained as required
• Arranging for other legal documents to be legalised and notarising as required, ensuring these are in line with agreed signing protocols, using and managing external corporate service company to ensure effective service that is value for money, and ensuring that all necessary authorities have been obtained in line with internal procedures and legal requirements. Recommending improvements in procedures and requirements where needed to meet external requirements or improve service or internal control.
• Developing and maintaining systems to monitor and track issuance of powers of attorney and other legalised documents
• Maintaining and implementing other corporate governance policies and procedures, including the conflicts of interest policy, confidentiality procedures, the disclosure of related parties transactions, to meet legal and governance requirements, liaising with auditors, finance staff and regulators as required

Ensuring Plan International is well advised on the corporate governance processes and requirements applicable to its work.

• Advising on, promoting, implementing and maintaining policies, practices and procedures to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, good governance and the effective management of legal risk.
• Understanding and ensuring the governance processes set out in governing documents are reflected in practice
• In liaison with the Chair, and the Company Secretary, supporting training and induction programmes for new governors
• Ensuring appropriate guidance material is available and disseminated to relevant staff and governors

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge

• Corporate governance knowledge and expertise – gained through professional legal, company secretarial or governance training and in practice
• Company secretarial and corporate law compliance knowledge and expertise – gained through practice and/or academic or professional training – legal or company secretarial qualification or equivalent highly desirable
• Understanding of working with boards and decision-making bodies including internationally
• Expertise in drafting minutes, board resolutions and papers in line with good governance practice
• Understanding of and ability to work effectively with company secretarial and compliance processes including across several jurisdictions
• Knowledge of electronic filing systems and online collaborative tools

Skills

• Strong corporate and/or compliance administration and project management skills
• Ability to continuously improve effectiveness of systems and processes and ensure they build corporate resilience and support effective knowledge transfer and ensure business continuity
• Readily identifies ways to strengthen governance and leadership decision making effectiveness and decision implementation/ accountability through the company secretariat function and through identifying ways to collaborate with other parts of G&E and Plan International generally
• Ability to deliver to tight deadlines and perform effectively under pressure;
• Ability to draft governance and compliance documents and to advise staff on governance processes and rules; ability to work with governance templates and to conduct governance and compliance research;
• Able to establish effective relationships with people at all levels of the organisation and to influence and build trust; very diplomatic and discreet, adept at dealing with politically sensitive issues
• Strong oral and written communication skills; accurate, observant and effective at communicating proactively to build relationships and ensure coordination of activities across the teams
• Excellent attention to detail
• Highly organised and methodical in approach