The future starts today, not tomorrow

The IoD’s Future Directors’ programme was launched in 2012 and has helped to lay the foundation for up-and-coming directors across a variety of sectors. The founders of the programme, Sir Stephen Tindall DistFInstD, Michael Stiassny CFInstD and Des Hunt FInstD (Retd), wanted to create a space for diversity and new voices at the table.

Since its inception, 102 directors have come through the programme with 60 participating host boards – each one carefully selecting candidates to take a seat alongside them over a 12-month period. Initially open to NZX-listed companies only, the programme has grown to reflect the current landscape and includes local and state sectors, regional, and not-for-profit boards.

Sir Stephen says discussions with female directors opposed to mandates triggered the idea. “There was a lot of noise around gender and ethnic balance for New Zealand public company boards at the time we started Future Directors, and I had observed what had happened in Australia when quotas were mandated there.”

It took some lateral thinking and a few conversations to get the ball rolling, manifesting as a programme that would give each public company the opportunity to appoint a future director, with the aim to increase the pool of people with experience who could then become full public company directors.

Today, the programme is more relevant than ever with diversity and inclusion, an issue on every board’s agenda. Making that diversity a reality is exactly what Future Directors was designed to do.

“Through our venture capital business K1W1 we interface with very large numbers of people in an assortment of tech companies. These are private companies and tend to have a different mix of directors than public ones. They usually have much younger people and have a good age, ethnic and gender balance,” Sir Stephen says.

Bringing new voices to the table is an asset in the big picture, and Sir Stephen says he can see many of the directors moving into public company board roles.

“Like everything in life, doing and experiencing gives you the knowledge and the ability to operate confidently and make the right decisions. Almost all of us in senior management and governance have worked our way up through the system over many years before we have succeeded,” he says.

As a result of the programme, The Warehouse Group (TWG) has brought on Bindi Norwell MInstD, Vena Crawley, Renee Mateparae MInstD and Caroline Rainsford MInstD. Each has gone on to a successful career.

And in August 2022, TWG took what Sir Stephen says was an “unusual step of appointing Rainsford from the Future Directors’ programme straight into a full directorship role”.

Chair Joan Withers CFInstD said of Rainsford’s appointment: “Caroline has a very special mix of skills and experience and, as a board, we’ve found her passion for technology as well as her strategic insights highly valuable as The Warehouse Group continues its digital transformation at pace.”

The governance landscape has continued to evolve since the programme launched almost a decade ago. Today, its value is being seen and felt at a governance level and Sir Stephen says it gives people an opportunity to experience the inside workings of a company, and see how it ticks.

The programme helps emerging directors overcome that first hurdle of getting their foot in what can be an intimidating door. But once you establish yourself as a “high quality director”, Sir Stephen says there is likely to be demand for your skill set.

“This can actually be evidenced when one looks at the directors across the public company profiles in New Zealand where many of them have sat on several boards,” he says.

Having new talent at the table has had an impact, especially on larger public company boards. Sir Stephen says it has given those older, more established members a chance to be exposed to new ideas, illustrating real value at the table. But, he adds, there is still more that can be done to increase diversity. “All boards should strive to be doing this regardless of the Future Directors’ programme,” he says.

Looking ahead to the next decade, Sir Stephen would like to see more companies look at how they can develop governors to make a meaningful difference to the success of their companies. “It has been shown globally that companies who have really good diversity perform significantly better than they did prior to becoming more diverse, or over other non-diverse businesses.”

Future Directors, which is celebrating its 10-year milestone, was registered as a trademark this year to recognise the significance and uniqueness of the programme.