Corporate Ego – failures of governance in Scotland and beyond

  • 20 October 2022
  • Edinburgh
  • Event
  • 80 PLACE(S) AVAILABLE
Event Details

Join us on Thursday 20th October for our upcoming event 'Corporate Ego – failures of governance in Scotland and beyond'.

The format of the evening will be:

  • Sir Ewan will provide a talk about his book 'Corporate Ego', (self-published in December 2021.) The book postulated that the prime culprit for each company’s fall from grace was the development of a collective mindset in the boardroom.
  • Reactions from the talk will then be drawn from the panel.
  • There will then be time allocated at the end of the evening and a chance for networking, with drinks and canapes on offer.

Speaker

Sir Ewan Brown

Sir Ewan Brown

 

Ewan Brown was educated at Perth Academy and St Andrews University. He was an executive director of Noble Grossart, merchant bankers, for over thirty five years and a non-executive director for a further fourteen years.

His past directorships included Scottish Financial Enterprise (chair), Entrepreneurial Scotland, Lloyds TSB Scotland (chair), Lloyds TSB Group, Wood Group, Stagecoach Group, Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust (chair), Aberdeen Trust, Scottish Widows Bank, Scottish Transport Group and Scottish Development Finance.

At Lloyds TSB Group, Ewan chaired the audit committee and the trustees of the group pension schemes and was the senior independent director.

He was Scottish Business Insider non-executive director of the year in 1998 and 1999

Ewan has been an honorary professor of finance at Heriot-Watt University, senior governor of St Andrews University, treasurer of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, depute chair of the Edinburgh International Festival, chair of Creative Scotland and Master of the Royal Company of Edinburgh Merchants. Other previous appointments have included the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the Council of Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland; the Royal Scottish Academy Foundation and he chaired the Court of Heriot-Watt University.

 

He received a CBE for services to public life in Scotland and was knighted for services to business, public life and philanthropy. 

Panellists

Simon Thompson

Simon Thompson

Chartered Banker Institute | Chief Executive

 

Simon Thompson was appointed Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute in 2007 after working for a number of international professional bodies and standard-setters.  He is a Fellow of the Institute and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

Simon is the author of Green & Sustainable Finance: Principles and Practice, published by Kogan Page (www.koganpage.com/product/principles-and-practice-of-green-finance-9781789664546).  He chairs the UK’s Sustainable Finance Education Charter on behalf of the Department for Net Zero and Energy Security and is a Board member of the UK’s Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC). Simon is a former Vice President of the European Bank Training Network. 

Simon was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Bangor University (2022) and BPP University (2015) for his contribution to banking, business and education. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-thompson-8b8694a/

 

 

 

 

George Littlejohn

George Littlejohn

CISI | Senior Adviser

 
George Littlejohn qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC in London before becoming a journalist with The Economist, specialising in financial and economic matters. He is now Senior Adviser at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), having conducted advisory work in financial centres across Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the past two decades. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and the author of a number of works on risk management in finance.
James Barbour

James Barbour

ICAS | Director - Policy Leadership

 

James Barbour CA, is Director, Policy Leadership, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), where he oversees the work on various areas including Audit and Assurance, Ethics and Corporate and Financial Reporting. He is also responsible for the ICAS Ethics Board and is the lead on all matters connected with The Power of One initiative. James qualified as a CA in 1996 and worked in general practice (primarily audit) with one of Scotland’s largest independent firms before joining ICAS in 1999.

James is a member of the UK Endorsement Board’s Accounting Firms & Institutes Advisory Group (AFIAG) He is also a member of Accountancy Europe (AE)’s Audit and Assurance Policy Group, Professional Ethics and Competencies Working Group, and is the ICAS representative at the AE Members’ Assembly. He is a recent former technical adviser to a UK Board member on the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) and the technical adviser on ethics to the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA). He remains a member of the IESBA Technology Task Force.

James regularly represents ICAS at meetings with standard-setting bodies, government bodies, regulators, and others concerning various business and technical issues, such as audit and assurance, corporate reporting, and ethics. He is also an Honorary Professor in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow.

As places are limited please only register to attend if you have intentions to travel to Edinburgh and attend in-person.

Please fill in the form below to secure your place:

 

Date & Schedule

Date

Thursday 20th October 2022

Location

Library of Mistakes

33A Melville Street Lane
Edinburgh
EH3 7QB

Event Timings:

18:00 – 18:05 Brief Introduction by Simon

18:05 – 18:15 Talk by Sir Ewan

18:15 – 18:35 Panel Discussion

18:35 – 18:55 Audience Q&A with Sir Ewan/Panel

18:55 – 19:00 Vote of Thanks 

19:00 – 21:00 Canapes and Drinks

Booking Details

As places are limited please only register to attend if you have intentions to travel to Edinburgh and attend in-person.

To secure your place please fill in the form below:

Please note that numbers are limited so book early to avoid dissapointment.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]