Board renewal in Italian listed companies

Are board skills important? They are, but the board composition is more crucial, with the board members able to make decisions and guide the management.

A new round of board appointments will occur soon in many Italian-listed companies, and the government will be required to meet the market demand. 

In this interview with Milano Finanza, Andrea Di Segni, Senior Managing Director at Morrow Sodali, comments on the board renewal process: “There has been a lot of talks about the new and the old candidates, but the new board members should consider several factors, for example, the timing, being the lists announced on the last day, while, according to the best international practices, the assessment of the new candidates by the market can take about 30-35 days.”

“Therefore best-in-class companies should independently communicate and explain the rationale behind the chosen skill set,” remarks Di Segni. “Board skills such as cybersecurity or sustainability (just to quote two of them), require an entire and dedicated team of experts, and a single board member cannot effectively address current and future challenges and influence the business. To conclude, the most important role of the board is the Chairman but sometimes the choice is to nominate less effective profiles. Selecting a Chairperson able to be a counterpart of the CEO, would be a very good sign to the market,” notes Di Segni.

Read the full article here (in Italian).