Advanced Corporate Governance Strategy and Ethical Leadership Training Course

Course overview

Boards and senior leaders are expected to make defensible decisions under regulatory scrutiny, shareholder pressure, cyber and ESG risk, related-party conflicts, and rapidly changing stakeholder expectations. Yet many governance arrangements remain procedural: board papers arrive late, committees duplicate work, risk information is disconnected from strategy, and ethical concerns surface only after damage has occurred. This course equips experienced leaders to diagnose those weaknesses and redesign governance practices that improve oversight, decision quality, accountability, and organisational trust.

Participants work through advanced corporate governance architecture, including board and committee mandates, director duties, delegation authorities, board information flows, risk appetite, internal control assurance, whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, remuneration oversight, and ESG governance. They learn to apply the OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance, COSO Internal Control Framework, ISO 37001 anti-bribery controls, and structured ethics decision models. The emphasis is on translating governance principles into practical charters, escalation routes, assurance maps, reporting dashboards, and board-level decision records.

Instruction combines faculty-led analysis, boardroom simulations, governance failure case studies, peer challenge sessions, and facilitated workshops using realistic corporate scenarios. Participants assess a simulated organisation's governance arrangements, identify material control and conduct gaps, and prepare a governance improvement plan for executive or board review. They leave with a tailored Governance Action Portfolio containing a board effectiveness diagnostic, committee charter improvements, an ethical decision protocol, a risk-and-assurance map, and a 90-day implementation roadmap.

The course is designed for professionals who already contribute to governance, risk, compliance, assurance, corporate secretariat, legal, finance, or board support activities and now need to influence governance design at enterprise level. It also suits senior managers preparing for board-facing, committee, or regulated leadership responsibilities.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Evaluate board and committee effectiveness using a structured governance diagnostic and evidence matrix
• Redesign board, committee and management delegations using charters, terms of reference and reserved-matters schedules
• Construct a risk appetite statement linked to strategic objectives, key risk indicators and escalation thresholds
• Map assurance coverage using the Three Lines Model and a risk-based assurance map
• Apply the COSO Internal Control Framework to identify control design and monitoring weaknesses
• Resolve conflicts of interest and ethical dilemmas using a documented ethical decision-making protocol
• Develop board reporting dashboards that distinguish strategic insight, risk signals, decisions and assurance evidence
• Produce a 90-day corporate governance improvement roadmap with owners, milestones and board approval points

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Board Secretaries and Company Secretaries — who design board processes, maintain governance records and advise directors
• Chief Risk Officers and Risk Directors — who must connect enterprise risk oversight to board decisions and risk appetite
• General Counsel and Senior Legal Counsel — who advise on director duties, conflicts, disclosures and governance obligations
• Compliance and Ethics Leaders — who need to embed conduct controls, speak-up routes and ethical escalation mechanisms
• Internal Audit Directors and Assurance Managers — who provide independent assurance on governance, risk and controls
• Senior Executives and Business Unit Directors — who require clearer accountabilities and stronger board-facing decision practices

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to corporate governance, risk, compliance, internal audit, legal advisory, finance leadership or board support work. They should understand basic board and committee structures, organisational delegations, risk registers, internal controls, and the distinction between executive management and non-executive oversight. Experience reading board papers, committee packs, audit reports or policy documents is strongly beneficial. No law degree, accounting qualification, prior board appointment, governance software licence, or specialist ESG certification is required. The course explains the relevant standards before participants apply them to advanced governance scenarios.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led briefings to establish governance principles, followed by facilitated application to a continuing corporate case. Participants analyse board packs, governance failures, conflict disclosures, risk reports and assurance findings; then test decisions in board and committee simulations. Small groups draft charters, escalation protocols, risk appetite statements and reporting dashboards, receiving faculty critique against OECD, COSO and ISO 37001 expectations. Each participant consolidates the work into a Governance Action Portfolio and presents a 90-day implementation plan for peer and instructor challenge.

Course outline

Day 1: Governance architecture and board effectiveness

• OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance and their practical application
• Board fiduciary duties, oversight responsibilities and director decision records
• Board composition, independence, diversity and succession governance
• Reserved matters, delegation-of-authority matrices and management accountabilities
• Board, audit, risk, remuneration and nomination committee mandates
• Board calendar design, agenda control and forward planning
• Board effectiveness diagnostic methods and evidence sources

Workshop: Participants conduct a board effectiveness review of a simulated company and produce a prioritised governance-gap diagnostic.

Day 2: Risk, control and assurance oversight

• Risk appetite statements, tolerance levels and escalation thresholds
• Linking strategic objectives to enterprise risk registers
• COSO Internal Control Framework: control environment, activities and monitoring
• The Three Lines Model and the roles of management, risk and internal audit
• Risk-based assurance mapping across compliance, audit and external assurance
• Key risk indicators, trigger metrics and board-level risk reporting
• Audit and risk committee challenge questions for material exposures

Workshop: Participants build a risk appetite and assurance map for a strategic expansion scenario, identifying gaps requiring board attention.

Day 3: Ethical leadership, conduct and accountability

• Ethical leadership principles and tone-from-the-top mechanisms
• Structured ethical decision-making models for competing stakeholder interests
• Conflicts-of-interest registers, declarations and recusal procedures
• ISO 37001 anti-bribery management system controls and due diligence
• Whistleblowing governance, non-retaliation safeguards and investigation oversight
• Related-party transactions and approval controls
• Culture indicators, conduct risk metrics and board oversight of behaviour

Workshop: Participants resolve a related-party and whistleblowing case in a board simulation and produce an ethical decision record with escalation actions.

Day 4: Governance information, disclosure and stakeholder accountability

• Board paper standards: purpose, options, recommendations and decision requests
• Diligent Boards and BoardEffect workflows for agendas, packs and action tracking
• Governance dashboards for strategy, risk, culture and assurance reporting
• Materiality assessment methods for ESG governance and stakeholder priorities
• GRI Standards and governance-related sustainability disclosures
• Annual governance reporting, attestations and disclosure controls
• Shareholder engagement, investor expectations and stakeholder accountability

Workshop: Participants redesign a weak board pack into a decision-ready paper and dashboard using defined materiality, risk and assurance criteria.

Day 5: Governance transformation and implementation

• Governance maturity models and prioritisation of remediation actions
• Designing committee charter amendments and reporting protocols
• Governance change stakeholder mapping and executive sponsorship
• Implementation roadmaps, ownership matrices and milestone controls
• Board evaluation follow-through and continuous improvement cycles
• Testing governance reforms through scenario planning and tabletop exercises
• Presenting governance recommendations to boards and executive committees

Workshop: Participants finalise and present a 90-day Governance Action Portfolio containing recommended controls, owners, milestones and board approval points.

Tools & standards covered

OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance, COSO Internal Control Framework, ISO 37001 Anti-bribery Management Systems, Diligent Boards

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions