CGA rising star discusses his focus on international governance this year

When Marsh & McLennan Companies faced a governance investigation by the Australian Royal Commission, it sent Connor Kuratek to work on the response.

Kuratek has served as the company’s chief counsel, securities & finance since May 2016 and won the rising star award at this year’s Corporate Governance Awards.

Speaking to Corporate Secretary at the Corporate Governance Awards, Kuratek said: ‘I had the chance this year to go to Australia and evaluate our corporate governance practices for our regulated companies down there… I was there for a month really evaluating everything they were doing and hopefully taking back some best practices as well.’

Kuratek was influential in coordinating the company’s response to the investigation by the Royal Commission, which ultimately led to the Commission closing the investigation.

When asked what his takeaways from the experience were, Kuratek said: ‘There’s a lot of redundancy that goes on. Just because you have a lot of paper, it doesn’t mean that it’s good governance. [This process was] really just looking at how to boil down the key facts that are important to directors in making sure that they can uphold their fiduciary duties.’

Click here to watch the full video. For an in-depth look at why Kuratek won the rising star award, look out for the release of the Corporate Governance Yearbook in early 2020.