Senior Company Secretary - Subsidiaries

Job Description

At abrdn, our purpose is to enable our clients to be better investors.

Clients worldwide trust us to find future-fit investment opportunities to deliver the outcomes they want. Our technology and insight help empower them to make better decisions, while the powerful partnerships we build help to enhance the expertise that we offer. And by enabling clients to invest responsibly, it helps us to build a better world.

About the department:

The abrdn Secretariat team is headed by the Group Company Secretary and sits within abrdn’s global Legal, Secretariat, Public Affairs & Corporate Sustainability function. The Team’s purpose is to support effective corporate governance across the Group, including meeting abrdn plc’s obligations to its stakeholders as a UK premium-listed company with a significant shareholder base. The Team delivers, across the Group’s global footprint, a governance function that is business and client-oriented in its philosophy while remaining efficient and cost effective in its approach. The team size is just under twenty. The remit of the team includes supporting the abrdn plc Board, key subsidiaries and certain fund Boards, group corporate governance and shareholder matters.

About the role:

The role of Associate Company Secretary (Subsidiaries) is a senior role reporting directly to the Group Company Secretary. This role requires a proactive approach to ensure effective company secretarial support and compliance with regulatory requirements with a focus on the Group’s material financial services regulated subsidiaries based in the UK and EMEA regions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Meeting Management: Organise and manage board and committee meetings, including developing and preparing agendas, distributing meeting materials, and taking minutes.
• Filings and Record Maintenance: Ensure the timely submission of filings and maintenance of statutory records for those entities within the remit of the Subsidiary team and oversight of filings and maintenance of statutory records where undertaken by third parties in relation to subsidiaries.
• Annual Reports: Assist in the production of the Annual Report and Accounts, and other statutory/regulatory reports where required.
• Provide corporate governance advice in respect of subsidiary entities to the senior leadership teams, boards, and committees and liaising with regional teams to ensure the implementation of corporate governance standards at regional level where applicable.
• Provide support on corporate transactions which relate to the subsidiary entities liaising closely with key teams such as Legal, Corporate Development and Structuring teams.
• Dealing with and advisory input into all aspects of statutory entity changes such as appointment of subsidiary Directors in line with Corporate Governance Framework Policy, share issues, capital reductions, dissolutions, strike-offs, change of registered office, change of name etc, working closely with other functions and business areas as required.
• Guide, mentor, and develop members of the Secretariat team who provide Board support to the subsidiary entities.
• Assist with the maintenance of the subsidiary Board Charters and Committee Terms of Reference, the Subsidiary Governance Principles and the Corporate Governance Framework Policy and oversee their operation in relation to subsidiary entities, ensuring compliance with applicable regulations, rules and codes.
• Deliver internally facilitated Board effectiveness reviews and board skills analysis as required.
• Scan for upcoming subsidiary governance developments, working with the business areas to help implement these developments, and drafting and presenting update briefings to the boards as required.
• Support with the process for appointing NEDs, induction of new NEDs, NED succession in relevant subsidiary boards and in their committees, and ongoing NED development and succession planning.

Skills and Experience:

• Sufficient gravitas with financial services regulated boards and experience of subsidiary corporate governance frameworks working closely with senior executives, Chairs, Committee Chairs, NEDs, and other board members.
• Collaborative and team-orientated individual who will work with colleagues to deliver the best outcomes for abrdn and its clients, partners and colleagues.
• Technical knowledge of the financial services governance space particularly in relation to asset management and/or fund management.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to deliver solutions and to meet tight deadlines.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. Therefore, if you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire and one of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone. If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.