Engagement & takeovers; building shareholder trust & navigating minority interests

Overview

Join us for the first webinar in our series, where we will delve into the critical strategies for building and maintaining strong relationships with institutional and retail shareholders.

This session will also cover the expectations and challenges boards face during potential takeover scenarios, particularly in balancing all the various shareholder interests. This webinar is essential for Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) looking to deepen their understanding of shareholder engagement generally and enhance their board's approach to engaging with shareholders in potential takeover situations.

Engagement Strategies

• Understanding the approach and expectations of institutional shareholders
• Best practices for regular and effective communication with shareholders
• Tools and techniques for proactive shareholder engagement

Takeover Approaches

• How institutional investors evaluate takeover offers
• How boards can engage with shareholders and evaluate shareholder feedback
• Balancing the interests of different shareholder groups in takeover scenarios
• Emerging trends in board/ shareholder engagement

Mark Cross

CFInstD

Mark is a seasoned professional director with over 20 years of international experience in corporate finance and investment banking. He spent a decade at Deutsche Bank, starting in Sydney in mergers and acquisitions, then moving to London as a Managing Director and Co-Head of a European M&A industry group. Throughout his investment banking career, he engaged extensively with institutional, retail, and private equity investors on M&A and equity capital market transactions.

Currently, Mark serves as the Chair of Chorus and is a Director of Xero, where he also chairs the Audit and Risk Management Committee. He is a board member of ACC, chairing its Investment Committee, and a Director of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. His previous directorships include serving as Chair of Milford Asset Management and as a Director at Z Energy, Genesis Energy, and Argosy Property.  In these roles, he has engaged extensively with institutional and retail shareholders, including during change-of-control situations, and has provided governance oversight of institutional investors.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Business Studies in Accounting and Finance from Massey University, New Zealand. He is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Chartered Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kirsten (KP) Patterson 

CMInstD 

Kirsten (KP) Patterson is the chief executive of the Institute of Directors. She is a qualified lawyer and a Distinguished Fellow of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand. Her governance roles include: 

• Chair, Global Network of Directors Institutes (GNDI) 
• Chair, Brian Picot Ethical Leadership advisory board 
• Trustee, Voices of Hope 
• Board member, XRAP Advisory Panel, External Reporting Board (XRB) 
• Ambassador, Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust 

With extensive governance and leadership experience, she is actively involved in community initiatives. 

A strong advocate of diversity, KP was a founding member of Global Women’s ‘Champions for Change’, a group of senior executives and directors who commit to diversity in the workplace, and a founding member of WiSPA, an organisation promoting women in sport, and mentors a number of business leaders. KP was also previously Director of the NZ Rugby Foundation. 

Guy Elliffe

MInstD

Guy Is Corporate Governance Manager at ACC where he manages the relationships between ACC and the boards of the NZ issuers which ACC owns.

He provides research to ACC's NZ portfolio managers who have decision-making responsibility for ACC's holdings.

Guy's multi-decade experience is as an equities analyst, portfolio manager and head of equities - both in NZ and in the US. He is a CFA charter-holder and qualified for the Institute of Actuaries Certificate of Finance and Investment.

He is a member of the Institute of Directors and currently is a director on NZX's Smartshares board.

Oliver Mander

Oliver brings a broad suite of leadership and functional experience to the NZSA, with a corporate career spanning strategic planning, implementation, technology, digital and finance functions.  His strength is as a strategic thinker, focused on transformative solutions, developing and implementing business strategies so that they come to life for organisations. At heart – he loves to solve problems!

Oliver has previously worked for Wellington Water, Chorus and BP Group.  He has had a long-held interest in NZ equity markets and investment, appearing as a regular columnist in the NZ Herald. During his tenure at NZSA, the organisation has continued to expand its role as a voice for all investors and a champion for best-practice governance structures.

Oliver lives in Wellington, is married to Gillian and is father and stepfather to three teenagers.  He is enjoying himself immensely as CEO of the NZ Shareholders’ Association and is looking forward to maintaining the strong reputation that NZSA has created amongst the retail investor community.

Sam Trethewey

Sam is a Portfolio Manager at Milford Asset Management, responsible for managing the Milford Trans-Tasman Equity Fund and the Milford New Zealand Equities Wholesale Fund.

Since joining Milford in 2014, Sam has been heavily involved in the Milford’s investments across listed New Zealand equities. Sam previously worked for Craigs Investment Partners in the Equity Capital Markets team advising on a wide range of equity issuance and prior to this at PwC.

Sam has a Masters of Business (Dist) and Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance from the University of Otago.

Additional information

Event cancellation policy

Regrettably, registration fees cannot be refunded when cancellations are received within two working days prior to any event.

See our standard terms and conditions for more information.

Contact

Kristyn Chandler-Yates
National Sponsorship and Events Manager
+64 27 207 2592
Kristyn.Chandler-Yates@iod.org.nz