Building a Board with Paul Scullion, Burness Paull LLP and Sheelagh Duffield, Savendie
Surrounding yourself with the right people is hugely important when planning for growth, and is something businesses of all sizes need to consider but never more so than when starting to scale. So what makes an effective board, and how do you make sure you get the right mix of people sitting at the table?
In this interactive session made for female founders in mind, we will explore some of the challenges facing directors of companies in the early days pre-investment; later stages when investors may require director or observer roles; and finally the issues facing directors as they move towards exit.
Sharing our own experience, we will discuss with you the importance of a governance framework and how that may evolve through each stage of your company’s development.
Paul Scullion is a senior associate in the corporate finance team at Burness Paull, advising clients across a broad range of sectors on corporate legal issues including mergers and acquisitions, group reorganisations, capital reductions and corporate governance. He also has over a decade’s experience advising on venture capital transactions, both to innovative growing businesses and to some of the most prolific investors in the Scottish marketplace.
Paul has also spent time on secondment to private equity firm BlueGem Capital Partners, during which he served as acting Legal Director.
Sheelagh Duffield is a senior executive and qualified lawyer with over 20 years of board level experience and a successful track record of leading complex projects and transactions in FTSE 100 and 250 companies; private equity owned businesses and public sector organisations.
Over many years as General Counsel and Company Secretary, Sheelagh has developed a thorough and practical understanding of corporate governance and the effective operation of boards. Sheelagh has held senior executive roles within the corporate departments of Scottish Power plc; Scottish Television plc and The Miller Group Limited at times when these businesses were delivering extensive strategic and organisational change. As a result, Sheelagh has a wide range of experience from a variety of sectors encompassing corporate strategy; business planning; risk management; in-house legal; company secretarial and governance practices.
Sheelagh is a non-executive director with The National Theatre of Scotland and Cricket Scotland and a course leader for the Institute of Directors delivering the Role of the Director and the Board which is part of the Chartered Director qualification. She is a corporate governance consultant with Burness Paull.