The Post Office Scandal: Part II

Overview

The UK Post Office Scandal—a cautionary tale of systemic governance failures—continues to send shockwaves through boardrooms worldwide. Over two decades, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted, their lives devastated by errors in the Horizon IT system and the toxic culture and ineffective governance that enabled this crisis.

This landmark case, for which new information is being added by the Inquiry which has drawn to a close, is not just a story about technology gone wrong. It is a stark reminder of the critical role boards play in ethical leadership, accountability, and stakeholder engagement. How did successive boards fail to scrutinise management, challenge groupthink, and address the risks that were hiding in plain sight? Most importantly, what lessons can directors take to strengthen governance in their own organisations?

Join Dr Roger Barker MInstD, Director of Policy and Corporate Governance at the UK Institute of Directors, and Guy Beatson CMInstD, General Manager of the Governance Leadership Centre at IoD NZ, as they delve into the governance breakdowns that made this crisis possible and explore how directors in New Zealand and globally can apply these lessons, including from Phase 6 of the Inquiry which looks at governance.  It will draw on Dr Barker’s analysis for the IoD UK.

Why You Should Attend:

• Uncover critical governance insights from the UK Inquiry’s latest report into the Post Office Scandal and analysis by IoD UK.
• Learn actionable strategies to improve ethical leadership, risk oversight, and stakeholder trust
  
  

Dr Roger Barker

MInstD

Dr Roger Barker is Director of Policy and Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors, the UK’s oldest professional body for business leaders. Dr Barker is a well-known speaker on governance issues, and the author of four books and numerous articles on corporate governance and directorship. 

Dr Barker is a former member of the European Economic and Social Committee and spent almost 15 years in a variety of equity research and senior management roles at UBS and Bank Vontobel, both in the UK and Switzerland. He has a doctorate from Oxford University and taught politics at Merton College, Oxford. 

Guy Beatson

CMInstD

Guy is an experienced senior leader who has worked with public, private and not-for-profit entities in New Zealand, Fiji, Mongolia, Australia and the United States. His previous senior roles include Deputy Chief Executive, Strategy and Organisation Performance at Te Puni Kōkiri; Deputy Secretary Natural Resources Policy at Ministry for the Environment. Most recently, he ran his own freelance consultancy practice supporting public sector senior executives and their teams to deliver high quality decision-making, advice and policy implementation. In each of these roles, he engaged on a range of natural resource, environmental and other issues with iwi/hapū and other Māori interests. 

Additional information

Contact

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