Reporting Lines for the Company Secretary
Reporting Lines for the Company Secretary
David Cantrick-Brooks | 01/05/2025

In a recent post on LinkedIn (and an expanded follow-up article) we asked WHAT DO BOARDS REALLY WANT FROM THE COMPANY SECRETARY?

In this article, we ask WHO SHOULD THE COMPANY SECRETARY REPORT TO?

Reporting lines for the company secretary vary from organisation to organisation and may include the one of the following:

The reporting line could depend upon the following factors:

Regardless of the reporting line it is very important that the company secretary is independent and can act independently, to facilitate / promote good governance, without fear of reprisal/s if management disagrees with some action proposed or rightly taken by the company secretary.

Comments and feedback is invited from directors, company secretaries and other interested stakeholders.

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