3-4 October, 2017, the First Module of the first Specialized Training Program for Corporate Directors was held in the Office of the International Finance Corporation in Kyiv. The Program was developed by the specialists of the Corporate Governance Professional Association in cooperation with Ukrainian Corporate Governance Institute and was held with support of the International Finance Corporation, the British Embassy in Kyiv and the Centre for International Private Enterprise. 

Olena Voloshyna, Head of the IFC in Ukraine, greeted the participants of the Program: “This is the moment when Corporate Governance has become very popular. On the one hand, the push came from the state; there was a very large pressure from international organizations, especially on the reform of the public sector, which should be expressed in the establishing the good corporate governance in companies. From the other side we see the initiative of the private sector. The family business has already started to think about what will happen when the first generation retires, how to build the work of the family business further.”

25 participants were selected for the first Program. They are representatives of the public and private JSCs. Three of them are from banks. 11 participants are representatives of the state-owned JSCs. 2 are from the Development Companies, 3 represent the state defense sector, one from the law company and one from the telecommunication company. The most participants represent the large business, and only 5 of them are from the SMEs. 

The first day of the Program was dedicated to the common issues of the Corporate Governance, the role and tasks of the Board of Directors, and the Board’s main activities. Oleksandr Okuniev, Head of the CGPA Management Board, defined who and why should be interested in the development of corporate governance, what is “international standards” and “best practices” of corporate governance. He also told the participants about the approaches to establishing of the effective model of corporate governance in the companies. 

The main issues discussed during the second day were the composition and the structure of the effective board, the role of the board in developing and implementing the company’s strategy, the Board’s strategic decisions on the company’s development, and the examples from the Ukrainian business environment.

Helen Volska, the Member of the “Nova Poshta” Supervisory Board, the founding partner of EBS, Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), conducted the first part of the classes of the second day. She focused on the procedures for selecting candidates to the Board and succession planning, and on the peculiarities of the Board Committees activities, since she has a huge experience in leading the Audit Committees of the Board. 

Dan Pasko, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Group of companies “Nova Poshta”, Co-managing Partner of the “Diligent Capital Partners”, expressed his view to the decisions on the strategy of the company and monitoring of its implementation. He also noted the effective procedures of the Board’s decision-making and Board’s action in the cases of crises, unexpected problems, conflicts, etc. 

The most interesting part of the Module were case studies and practical exercises, which were given by all trainers. Dan Pasko gives very good examples of cases form his own experience of developing and implementing the strategy of the Nova Poshta. It is a private postal delivery and logistics company, and it has a nationwide network of more than 2,300 branches in more than 1000 cities and towns.

The participants were satisfied with the first module of the program and wait for the  second one, which is planned for October 31 – November 1, 2017.