For Purpose Tuesdays with Penelope Kenny 2into3
We had our in-person For Purpose Tuesdays on Tuesday 13th September at our head office. We invited our graduates to learn more about governance from Penelope Kenny, Head of Governance at 2into3. Penelope spoke to graduates about governance in the nonprofit sector, outlined best practice for board members, and placed our graduates in smaller groups for practical learning.
Penelope Kenny, Head of Governance at 2into3
Penelope joined 2into3 last year as an Associate Consultant and is now leading the governance practice. Penelope is an experienced Chartered Accountant, with an extensive existing portfolio of directorships. Her experience also extends as Non-Executive Director, Audit committee chair and CFO, with a Certificate in Corporate Governance. Her experience is based upon embedding positive corporate governance practices into organisations, with a focus on business alignment and financial control.
What do boards do?
Penelope explained how board members have numerous responsibilities. They’re involved in the strategy, financial control and risk, creation of governing documents, policymaking, hiring and directing executive employees, amongst many other responsibilities. Board members have a fiduciary duty of responsibility for the corporation’s assets and its shareholders. A good board member must have integrity, leadership experience, and a commitment to the company.
What is ‘bad behaviour’ as a board?
Board members have a responsibility to uphold their position as a director. They are prohibited from benefiting where their personal interests and their duty as directors conflict.
Their position could be undermined by:
- An undeclared conflict of interest
- Undisclosed issues
- Voting for personal gain
- Not acting in the best interests of the company
Graduate Breakout Teams
After learning about governance, what makes a good board member and conflict of interest, our graduates were split into groups of 3 and asked to participate in “what would you do?” exercises. This allowed our graduates to think critically about examples of conflict of interest and how they would respond to a board member presenting a potential conflict of interest.
Q&A
Our For Purpose Tuesdays with Penelope Kenny 2into3 session finished with a Q&A. Our graduates asked Penelope questions surrounding becoming a board member, the skills required, career advice and more. Penelope provided our graduates with useful resources for graduates in the nonprofit sector.
To find out more about For Purpose Tuesdays or the structure of our graduate programme, visit here.
