A leading light in legal circles ... pleit voor 'code of ethics' bankiers

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Na het onderstaande artikel te hebben gelezen, ben ik (een klein beetje)
in tweestrijd.
Aan de ene kant een indrukwekkende staat van dienst, en aan de andere kant
wel een hele zachte handschoen.

Groet / Cees

http://www.businessandleadership.com/news/article/12444/letter-of-the-law

Letter of the law

A leading light in legal circles, Mary Redmond also has an impressive
track record as a director in both the commercial and not-for- profit
sectors. She spoke to Jane Suiter about her career, her varied roles and
her view of what’s required to tackle the current crisis.
If anyone is the embodiment of high-level multitasking, it must be Dr Mary
Redmond. Not only is she one of Ireland’s most distinguished labour
lawyers, but Redmond has also sat on boards such as Bank of Ireland and
Smurfit, and is chair of many others, as well as being involved in a
serious amount of pro bono work — she was the founder of the Irish Hospice
Foundation and The Wheel.
Despite all of these accomplishments, Redmond has an easy, open manner,
and wears her intellectual gifts lightly. It is clear that her first love
is the law.
“It is a passion. I have practised it and written about it,” she explains.
When I was on the board of Smurfit, I wrote a 600-page book on dismissal
law.” Needless to say, it is now the standard text.
Indeed, from the time Redmond studied at University College Dublin (UCD),
she always felt she would be an academic lawyer. That path took her to the
hallowed halls of Cambridge where Redmond went to do a PhD, but returned a
fellow having introduced the field of discrimination into the college.
However, the draw of home and practice lured her back to Ireland in the
mid-Eighties. “It was the first decision I made that no one supported,”
she laughs. “But it taught me about making decisions — you have to follow
your nose at one level.”
Having taken out a lease on a small place on Baggot Street, she set up as
Mary Redmond solicitor. “It was as much to ensure people did not come in
to me, see a woman and ask to see the principal,” she laughs. That
practice continued in various locations, including home when her son was
younger, until Redmond rejoined Arthur Cox in 2000, where she had
originally trained.
Over these years, she had her finger dipped in many pies, becoming
Ireland’s most high-profile female non-executive director in the process
with a seat on the board of Smurfit, as well as Bank of Ireland — where
she was deputy governor for a number of years — and the Campbell Bewley
Group. At the same time, Redmond founded voluntary groups such as The
Wheel, a network of voluntary and community groups, as well as The Irish
Hospice Foundation. As if this were not enough, she also sat on a variety
of statutory boards such as the Labour Relations Commission and RTÉ.
These days, Redmond is more interested in chairing boards and — apart from
being a consultant with Arthur Cox — she has transgressed to become
chairperson of a wide range of boards in the commercial and voluntary
sectors. Redmond now chairs the 500-year-old Christ Church Cambridge
Development board, plus the often-contentious Appeals Committee for
Academic Promotions at UCD.
More recently, she has become involved with new interests and is on the
board of Cricket Ireland. “My husband and son are cricket fanatics,
getting up in the small hours of the morning to watch test games. I have a
strong interest in governance, but I am also fascinated by player
contracts which I did a few of in my career.”
Redmond springs to life talking about her role as chair of 4FM, the
multi-city radio station aimed at the over- 45s, due to go on air in the
coming weeks. “It will be 70pc music and 30pc chat, but it’s an exciting,
very unique sound. There is literally a phenomenal range of music and it’s
going to be great.”
The role of non-execs
Asked for advice for aspiring non-executive directors, her first
suggestion is perhaps a surprising one.
“Don’t have a personal development plan. Let opportunities come to you. If
you are open to them, they are fantastic. Life can take you down lots of
different roads, so do not be afraid to travel. Always ask questions.
Don’t worry that others may think you foolish. Finally, believe your
nose.” And Redmond’s other advice to any aspiring non-execs? “Learn
yourself into the role. You need to keep upskilling and reading on the
subject. Remember that this is not a ceremonial role — you have awesome
responsibilities.”
Unsurprisingly, as such a serial board member and chair, she has views on
the role of directors and of corporate governance as failures manifest at
the moment. Essentially though, it is rules for non-executive directors
she believes that must be changed.
“It is such an enormous crisis, [Warren] Buffet may believe that
non-executive directors are as useful as potted plants, but I do not
agree. When the dust settles, we need to have a dialogue about
non-executive directors. On top of that, the Supreme Court recently
suggested that their position is different to executive directors —
underlining the need to revisit their role,” says Redmond.
In terms of the banking sector, and as a former deputy governor of the
bank, she believes there has been a governance failure in the banking
system deriving not only from the short-term bank bonus culture, but from
failures at the regulators and the credit-rating agencies.
“One of the key triggers was Basel II, which allowed residential lending
to be securitised, leading to subprime lending and off-balance-sheet
valuations. It is a very complex picture, but we must own up to our
mistakes, look at them and learn.
“We must also re-examine the legal framework for banks. “For example, 30
years ago you would not have got your mortgage from a bank, but from a
building society,” Redmond adds.
But, of course, banking problems — particularly in Ireland — go deeper and
cannot be blamed on the international crisis.
“We cannot just say it is US subprime loans. We need to come out of this
with something quite different.”
She believes that banks must be prepared to compromise. “If you want
light-touch regulation, then we need standards.” But she cautions against
any knee-jerk responses. “We should remember that decisions made at the
time of crisis are not always the best decisions.”
Code of ethics
Her own solution is a code of ethics. “Maybe the time has come to put this
at the centre of business. Directors should have a root-and-branch
discussion about what ethical behaviour is because, at the end of the day,
ethical behaviour will add to the bottom line. There must be values that
are applied to all stakeholders, and it involves ideas such as integrity
and fair dealing. Too often it is hived off to the marketing or PR
departments, but we need individual directors talking about how specific
programmes meet or do not meet ethical standards. We cannot just have it —
we need to live it. People will want an ethical underline after all this.
Without this, there is reputational risk, as well as shareholder risk.
“In the meantime, the key is that we need to be in this together,” she says.
Redmond, who is also a council member of the Institute of Directors in
London, notices one big difference between UK prime minister Gordon Brown
and our beleaguered taoiseach, Brian Cowen TD.
“Brown has surrounded himself with a panel of top advisers, senior
business people, many people who will give their time pro bono, even the
big firms. The Taoiseach Brian Cowen needs a team of international
business people he can call on — day and night, weekday or weekend — as
Brown has done. We need all hands on deck. We have to start getting out of
this.”
Not only are we lacking the teamwork, she says, but we are also lacking
leadership. “Perhaps, most importantly, what we need is a leader, somebody
with helicopter vision, someone who can see the long-term and the
medium-term view. As Viktor Frankl said: ‘we can live with this if we know
how’.”
Indeed Redmond is in the camp that we need to know as much as possible
about institutions such as Anglo Irish Bank.
“We need to know our options, alternatives and their feasibility. Then, we
can all play our part. We need someone to get us there. We need a positive
explanation of why we are feeling pain. In that case, it would be far more
difficult for people to say no, to say I’m not going to do this. What we
need is leadership. We are hungry for it. We need the right action and we
need it right now,” she affirms.
by Jane Suiter

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