Directorship services

The subject of corporate governance has in recent years come to the top of the agenda for institutional investors, financial regulators, and investment management firms around the world.

Spectacular scandals and cases of fraud has come to the surface following the financial crisis, revealing the risks of lacking corporate governance policies and hands-on oversight from directors in hedge funds and investment firms.

Apart from the obvious cases of fraudulent behavior which was allowed to go undetected by rubberstamping or absent boards of directors, the crisis also presented a number of examples of how things can go wrong for investors when board members are too dependent on the investment manager, have conflicts of interest or simply did not possess the right skill set to fully understand the complexity of the underlying investment strategies.

Along with increased focus and stricter corporate governance rules imposed by financial regulators in most jurisdictions, major institutional investors have now started paying particular attention to the corporate governance standards and to the membership and workings in the board room.

Investment managers have also reached the conclusion that proper corporate governance is not an additional layer of costs and bureaucracy, but can be a major competitive advantage, provided sufficient independent skills and competences are brought into the board room. A truly professional board can both reduce risks and help grow the business, while assuring investors that their interests are consistently and professionally considered.

Having worked both as an executive manager, as a consultant and as a non-executive director in the investment management industry for many years Mads Jensen brings experience in product development and distribution, investment strategy and risk and performance oversight to the table. His current directorship portfolio which spans over a variety of asset classes, company sizes and stages and across multiple jurisdictions allows him to identify problems and trends and transfer best practices to add value to both funds and investors.