Working with the Company Secretary, second Deputy Company Secretary and Governance Assistant, providing professional governance support services to the Members’ Assembly, the International Board, senior management team and their committees, supporting the development and implementation of their workplans and meeting cycles, ensuring that action logs are followed up

· Working closely with the CEO and Executive Office to ensure there is effective planning and coordination across the governance and the management decision making bodies to ensure effective decision making, implementation and communication internally and externally.

· Developing and ensuring the maintenance and implementation of systems, processes and procedures that give rise to efficient governance and decision making by the governing bodies according to good governance standards and well-coordinated with management bodies

Ensuring coordination and quality controlling the finalisation and distribution of agendas and papers and ensuring that they are clear and consistently drafted in line with good governance practice

· Ensuring high-quality support to meetings, including by drafting high quality minutes and action logs, maintaining an awareness of scheduling future plans and timetables and ensuring these are coordinated across executive and governing decision-making bodies.

· Ensuring the provision of online and written tools as resources to governors and senior managers that are user-friendly and effective in supporting decision makers to carry out their duties and ensuring that decisions are effectively communicated

Providing an effective company administration/ secretariat service

· Maintaining high quality, accurate governance and other decision-making records in line with applicable legal requirements, and good governance and decision-making practice

· Managing all requests for Powers of Attorney and drafting and issuing these in line with the scheme of delegation, ensuring legal advice is obtained as required

· Arranging for other legal documents to be legalised and notarising as required, ensuring these are in line with agreed signing protocols, using and managing an external corporate service company to ensure effective service that is value for money, and ensuring that all necessary authorities have been obtained in line with internal procedures and legal requirements. Recommending improvements in procedures and requirements where needed to meet external requirements or improve service or internal control.

· Developing and maintaining systems to monitor and track issuance of powers of attorney and other legalised documents

· Maintaining and implementing other corporate governance policies and procedures, including the conflicts of interest policy, confidentiality procedures, the disclosure of related parties transactions, to meet legal and governance requirements, liaising with auditors, finance staff and regulators as required

· Managing the process for obtaining written resolutions and ensuring these are in line with governing documents

· Managing, implementing and reporting on other legal and regulatory compliance processes as required

Ensuring Plan International, Inc. is well advised on the corporate governance processes and requirements applicable to its work.

· Advising on, promoting, implementing and maintaining policies, practices and procedures to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, good governance and the effective management of legal and operational risk.

· Understanding and ensuring the governance processes set out in governing documents and policies are reflected in practice

· In liaison with the Chair, and the Company Secretary, supporting training and induction programmes for new governors

· Ensuring appropriate guidance material is available and disseminated to relevant staff and governors.

· Carrying out such other duties as are reasonably required

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

· Company Secretary (high)

· General Counsel (high)

CEO (high)

· Leadership Team members (high),

· Members of the Executive Office (high)

· International Board Chair, Committee Chairs and other Board members (high)

· Managers and coordinators of specific functions, projects and programmes in global and regional hubs involved in relevant projects/boards/committees (medium)

· Members’ Assembly delegates (medium)

· Legal Counsels (medium)

· Staff in National Organisations involved in governance issues (low)

External

· Company secretaries working in other NGOs (low)

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Skills

· Ability to deliver to tight deadlines and perform effectively under pressure;

· Strong corporate and/or compliance administration and project management skills (including agenda planning and developing and executing annual work plans for decision-making bodies)

· Ability to draft minutes, board resolutions and papers in line with good governance practice

· Ability to continuously improve effectiveness of systems and processes and ensure they build corporate resilience and support effective knowledge transfer and ensure business continuity

· Readily identifies ways to strengthen governance and leadership decision making effectiveness and decision implementation/ accountability through the company secretariat function and through identifying ways to collaborate with other parts of the organisation

· Ability to draft governance, policy and procedural documents and to advise staff on processes and procedures; ability to work with governance templates and to conduct governance and compliance research;

· Able to establish effective relationships with people at all levels of the organisation and to influence and build trust; very diplomatic and discreet, adept at dealing with politically sensitive issues

· Strong verbal and written communication skills; accurate, observant and effective at communicating proactively to build relationships and ensure coordination of activities across the teams

· Excellent attention to detail

· Highly organised and methodical in approach

· Excellent judgement, awareness and understanding of significance of compliance and governance issues being raised by Board members, staff and senior managers

· Strong follow through – ensures tasks and action points are followed up and completed on time

Strong powers of critical analysis and the confidence to question and challenge approaches and proposals in terms of compliance with governance and policy requirements, including when they are made by senior management/ board members

· Ability to handle confidential correspondence in a professional manner

· Word, Outlook, Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint essential; Excel valued

Desirable Experience

· Corporate governance knowledge (preferably gained through professional legal, company secretarial or governance training and in practice)

· Knowledge of electronic filing systems and online collaborative tools

Behaviours

Striving for High Performance

– Is motivated and able to motivate others.

– Open to feedback

– Provides timely advice and support.

– Recognises the confidential nature of the work and works within boundaries

Strategic thinking and innovation

– Creative and responsive to the needs of the organisation, adopting a can-do / problem-solving approach.

– Understands when to share good practice and when to seek support.

– Willing to take well thought through calculated risks in the best interests of the organisation.

– Provides proactive governance and compliance support and is only reactive when the situation requires.

Decision-making and risk management

– Able to resolve issues independently but knows when to refer them to others.

– Able to maintain confidentiality at all times

– Able to recognise when an issue must be escalated immediately to a high level for a decision.

Influence and communication

– Remains positive, even if under pressure.

– Confident communicator, able to establish personal credibility and trust quickly.

– Effective writer providing clarity in complex communications e.g. minutes and reports

Effective teams and partnerships

– Builds teams and works effectively and connects with others.

– Able to influence those over whom they have no direct management control

– Adopts a people-oriented approach.

– A strong team player with a flexible, dynamic approach

Self-awareness

– Behaves consistently and with honesty and integrity

– Is sensitive to the needs of others.

– Interested in and committed to the work of Plan International