Background
Louis is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (‘ICAEW’) and a member of the Institute of Risk Management (‘IRM’) and the Institute of Internal Auditors (‘IIA’). He is also a qualified teacher with a Bachelor of Education Honours degree.
Board and NED Training and Development
He is one of the co-founders of the Non-Executive Directors’ Association (‘NEDA’) – the members Association that was set up in 2006-7 to support the specific needs and demands of Non-Executive Directors and Trustees. Louis was CEO of NEDA for ten years, until April 2024, where he developed and led the NED and board training, education and advisory services. He has undertaken a number of independent Board Performance and Effectiveness Reviews across a range of sectors (corporate, not-for-profit and public sector entities); overseen the publication of six editions of the Non-Executive Directors’ Handbook; and helped to establish the very successful Non-Executive Director Awards, with Peel Hunt and The Sunday Times (18th year of involvement in 2024).
Governance, Risk and Assurance services
Louis has over 30 years’ experience in governance, risk and assurance services and in public
practice has worked for all of the ‘Big 4’ Accounting firms in audit and consultancy roles. He was a partner for six years at the UK top 10 audit firm Crowe Clark Whitehill (now Crowe UK), where he led the Risk & Assurance team. He now runs his own practice in this area working in partnership with organisations such as the ICAEW, IRM, WB Directors and three boutique business consultants. He is a longstanding member of the Quoted Companies Alliance (‘QCA’) Corporate Governance Expert Group – he was on the working groups for the QCA Corporate Governance Code 2023, the QCA Guide for Audit Committees, the QCA Guide for Nominations Committees and the QCA Environmental and Social Guide. He is a regular speaker on the Henley Business School ‘Board Director Programme’ and Cranfield Business School ‘Non Executive Director Programme’.
Board and other related experience
Louis currently acts as Board Advisor to the Cayman Islands Financial Services Institute and has been a Non-Executive Director and Board member of two UK quoted Investment Trusts and an AIM-listed European Oil and Gas company. He has also acted as Head of Internal Audit & Risk at eleven commercial and not-for-profit organisations on outsourced arrangements. He established a practical methodology and approach to develop both boards of directors and individual NEDs and Trustees, and has worked with the ICAEW to shape a clear set of competencies and attributes for board directors, used as part of the focus on a new continuing professional development programme (‘CPD’)
