News

How can the Baltic States reach a competitive international capital market level?

Date & time: November 27, 2013, 11.30 to 13.30

Price: On invitation only by the above organizers – free

Place: Citadele Bank Auditorium, Republikas laukums 2A Rīga, LV-1010

Registration: Thibault Normand, tnormand@corporategovernance.lt , Tel. +371 29424439

Register before 21st November, 2013.

Agenda:

11.30 Arrival & Registration – Coffee & Networking

12.00 Opening by Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, on the importance of a well functioning stock market for economic growth.

12.20 Daniels Pavluts, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Latvia, on attracting more capital flows to Riga stock exchange.

12.40 Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne , CEO Nadaq OMX Riga.

13.00 Societe Generale, experiences of stock market development and facilitating access to capital.

13.20 Closing by Guntis Belavskis, CEO of Citadele Banka.

13.30 Finish

About Sir Suma Chakrabarti

Sir Suma Chakrabarti, born in 1959 in West Bengal, India, is the sixth President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Sir Suma has extensive experience in international development economics and policy-making, as well as in designing and implementing wider public service reform.

Sir Suma is notable for playing a key role developing the UK’s successful Know-How Fund for Central and Eastern Europe and worked with the European Commission in improving its programmes in the Middle East and North Africa.

Today Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance (BICG) launches its latest publication, titled “Guidance on Board Effectiveness – Handbook for State-Owned Enterprises (EE, LV, LT)”

This publication is the latest in a series intended to build a more profound understanding of how governance works in the Baltic States, and to develop suggestions for how to implement world class standards in the Baltic region.

This time we have uniquely taken a UK guidance from the Financial Reporting Council and adopted it for the use in the Baltic States. The handbook is an adaptation of the Financial Reporting Council (UK), “Guidance on Board Effectiveness”, originally published in March 2011. The appendix section mainly draws from the preceding document from FRC, “Good Practice Suggestions from the Higgs Report”.

Additionally, we have added reference to relevant OECD publications.

This new handbook has been developed to improve the work in the boards of the SOE’s in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and help the parties involved create international best practice boards.

The target audience for the handbook is current and future board members, both when they are from the public sector and the board assignment is a part of their day-to-day job, and when they are independent board members from outside the Government.

We also believe this handbook will be valuable for Government Ministers, officials and Parliamentarians that are overseeing SOE’s and perhaps are involved in nominating board members and communicating with the SOE’s.

Finally the handbook should act as a window to the public, so they might understand what to expect when we manage these valuable assets on their behalf.

Key points in the Guidance on Board Effectiveness:

• The board’s role is to provide entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls, which enables risk to be assessed and managed.
• An effective board develops and promotes its collective vision of the company’s purpose, its culture, its values and the behaviours it wishes to promote in conducting its business.
• An effective board should not necessarily be a comfortable place. Challenge, as well as teamwork, is an essential feature. Diversity in board composition is an important driver of a board’s effectiveness, creating a breadth of perspective among directors, and breaking down a tendency towards ‘group think’.
• Good boards are created by good chairpersons. A chairperson creates the conditions for overall board and individual director effectiveness.
• A non-executive director should, on appointment, devote time to a comprehensive, formal and tailored introduction, which should extend beyond the boardroom.

Guidance on Board Effectiveness – Handbook for State-Owned Enterprises (EE, LV, LT)

For additional information:

Kristian Kaas Mortensen
President
Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance
km@corporategovernance.lt
+370 611 133 44

Notes for editors on BICG:

Established in August 2009, Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance is a non profit, non governmental association with strong involvement from the Baltic business and political leaders.

BICG delivers value to its stakeholders by promoting global competitiveness of Baltic companies through adoption of leading corporate governance practices.

Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance, together with other partners, helped organize the 13th European Corporate Governace Conference, taking place on October 8/9, 2013, in Vilnius, as part of the Lithuanian EU Presidency.

A number of BICG Board & Council members are speaking at the event, this includes:

• Antanas Zabulis, Chairman of the Baltic Corporate Governance Council, Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance
• Robertas Dargis, President of Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists; Member of Corporate Governance Council of Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance
• Kristian Kaas Mortensen, President of Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance
• Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne, Head of Baltic Exchange Services at NASDAQ OMX; Chairman of Management Board of NASDAQ OMX Riga; Chairwoman of the Board of the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance
• Erkki Raasuke, Board member LHV Bank, Member of Corporate Governance Council of Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance

At the conference, BICG will also launch the Guidance on Board Effectiveness, Handbook for State-Owned Enterprises in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Program

Dear Everyone,

Please find attached an invitation to our early summer event.

This time the speaker is not only a very experienced international business leader, he has also just published a book called the The Value Adding Board.

Mr. Torben Ballegaard Sørensen’s last executive position was as CEO of Bang & Olufsen, he is now a full time board executive, serving as Chairman of the Electrolux Audit Committee, board member of Egmont Fonden, LEGO A/S, Pandora Holding A/S and many more.

Registration is mandatory and for members only.

Best Regards,
Kristian

Agenda

The third BICG Annual General Meeting and Conference, held at Swedbank in Vilnius on March 14th, was attended by almost 100 BICG members and guests.

The morning session was dedicated for the Annual General Meeting, where the new Board and Council of the BICG were elected. The BICG members also elected the BICG Nomination Committee and approved the activity report as well as the audited financial statement of 2012.

The afternoon session was opened by a keynote speech by the President of Latvia H.E. Andris Bērziņš, who stated in his speech via video: “Now more than ever, we shall concentrate on much deeper integration of markets of the Baltic states, thus going beyond what has already been achieved by EU‘s common market. I see the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance as an exemplary platform for such reasonable goal”.

Watch video address

Other speakers at the conference were:

• Mr. Mads Qwist, 2010 Speaker of the Year in Denmark and owner of Styrkefokus
• Mr. Harri Kerminen, Deputy Chair of Finnair
• Ms. Marianne Philip, Deputy Chair of the Danish Corporate Governance Committe
• Mr. Hans Christiansen, Senior Economist, Corporate Affairs Division, OECD
• Mr. Stephen Bruyant-Langer Senior Client Partner, KORN/FERRY INTERNATIONAL

The Conference finished with awarding honorary membership to Carl Berneheim, co-founder of the BICG.

At the Annual General Meeting BICG President Kristian Kaas Mortensen touched on BICG plans for 2013: “We will have two board member education programs in 2013, we will be one of the partners of the 13th EUROPEAN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CONFERENCE and we will as well publish a study on executive management changes from 1992 to 2012 in State Owned Enterprises.”.

Elected by the members to the BICG Corporate Governance Council:

• Antanas Juozas Zabulis (Chairman)
• Ian Plenderleith
• Vitālijs Gavrilovs
• Juris Binde
• Uldis Biķis
• Raino Paron
• Erkki Raasuke
• Arminta Saladžienė
• Robertas Dargis

Elected by the members to the BICG Board:

• Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne (Chairwoman)
• Linas Dičpetris
• Paulius Gruodis
• Undine Bude
• Darius Maikštėnas
• Jerry Wirth
• Sonata Matulevičienė
• Ilona Nurmela
• Katrine Judovica

Elected by the members to the BICG Nomination Committee:

• Tiina Sepa (Chairwoman)
• Lina Morkūnaitė
• Aris Zigurs

Press Release

Following the Article 5.7 of the Statutes of the Association “BALTIC INSTITUTE OF CORPORATE GOVERNACE”, legal entity code 3024 41498, registered address Jogailos str. 4, Vilnius, Lithuania, (the “Association”) the President of the Association hereby convenes the annual general meeting of members of the Association (the “Meeting”).

The main details of the Meeting can be found in the below documents:

Agenda of the AGM, EN

Agenda of the AGM, LT

Annex to agenda. Draft decisions, EN

Annex to agenda. Draft decisions, LT

Voting right transfer agreement, EN

Voting right transfer agreement, LT

Nomination Committee Resolution, EN

Nomination Committee Resolution, LT

BICG Annual General Meeting & Conference

We have now worked on improving Baltic Corporate Governance since 2009 and its time to make the words and good intentions become actions and results.

On Thursday, March 14, 2013, we will meet to hear opinions from BICG members, decide on new BICG Board & Council members, approve the BICG annual report and much more. We will also have an opportunity to listen to international speakers, who can inspire us to tackle the Baltic Governance Challenge.

Agenda:

09.00 Welcome, registration and coffee

09.30 Strength based Culture – thriving results, Mr. Mads Qwist – 2010 Speaker of the Year in Denmark and owner of Styrkefokus

10.00 BICG Annual General Meeting

11.30 Lunch & networking

12.30 Video address

WORDS TO ACTION: THE BALTIC GOVERNANCE CHALLENGE

12.35

Mr. Harri Kerminen, Board member of Finnair, Chairman of Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and Finpro ry, Mr. Kerminen was President and CEO of Kemira Plc until April, 2012.

Ms. Marianne Philip, Deputy Chair of the Danish Corporate Governance Committe, Chair of Kroman Reumert and Board member of Codan Insurance

Mr. Hans Christiansen, Senior Economist, Corporate Affairs Division, OECD

15.00 BICG Honoary member ceremony

15.15 Reception

Date & time: Thursday, March 14, 09.00 to 16.00

Attendance: BICG Individual & Corporate members only, there is no participation fee

Place: Swedbank, Konstitucijos pr. 20A, 03502 Vilnius

Program