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‘Path to net zero’ driving boards 2022
March 10, 2022
Charting the best path to net zero emissions by 2050 and balancing the short-term demands of investors, suppliers and staff for “quick wins” on climate change policies is one of the most pressing issues for boards in 2022, according to a leading local boutique recruitment firm.
Derwent, which is run by Lindsay Every – the son of former Wesfarmers and Boral chairman Bob Every – believes that where managing digital transformation was the predominant theme for boards in 2021, the “pathway to net zero 2050” came to the fore in January this year.
“The questions firms are asking are around how they manage short-term stakeholder tension – shareholders, suppliers, staff and community – to be seen to be delivering quick wins with understanding how ultimately technology will serve to offset carbon or related ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals,” said Derwent founder Ben Derwent.
“Boards are asking what lens to look through: considering this theme in isolation may ultimately unwind investment endeavours in emerging markets or the equivalent.
“That said, green washing and/or doing nothing is equally harmful.” Mr Derwent said listed companies were setting up special purpose investment functions to identify and invest in technology to address decarbonisation and climate objectives.
“Additionally we are seeing the emergence of environmental and governance executives and specialist communications/IR professionals,” he said.
The powerful Australian Council of Superannuation Investors has warned that its members – with combined assets of more than $1 trillion – will vote against the re-election of directors they believe have failed to manage climate risk appropriately. Investors are also increasingly expecting companies to address material climate-related risks in their reporting.
At the same time, the corporate and prudential regulators in Australia have highlighted the need to address climate risk.
Derwent competes against the global executive recruiters, which include the likes of Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Egon Zehnder, Korn Ferry and Russell Reynolds, for “mandates” to recruit executives.
The Sydney-based firm, which will turn over more than $25m this year and boasts former News Corporation and Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh on its advisory board, handles more than 500 executive and board appointments a year.
Last year one of Derwent’s top appointments was assisting former Australia Post executive Nicole Sheffield become head of digital at Perth conglomerate Wesfarmers.
The firm also helped Australian Jane Huxley return home from the UK where she was a top global executive at streaming giant Spotify to take over the CEO role at Are Media, the magazine company formerly known as Bauer Media.
A year earlier it helped former Bank of Queensland and Bankwest chief executive Jon Sutton take the role of chief executive of working capital finance provider Scottish Pacific.
Mr Derwent said the current “noise” in global financial markets and among international central Banks about inflation was real, based on surging demand and supply constraints caused by closed borders and other caps on mobility during the Covid pandemic.
This, he said, was being fuelled by soaring wages growth in some sectors. “Particular spikes will continue well beyond the borders opening (although this will free up supply in some sectors), as demand for new and different skills will be hotly contested well ahead of adequate talent pipelines meeting demand – for example digital, data/tech, cyber, etc,’’ he said.
“Also absent from the wage inflation debate is the increase in the compulsory superannuation levy. This is another elephant in the room: as this will likely increase cost to firms, thus increasing firms’ wage bills,” Mr Derwent said.
He said boards were now providing “the 3 Cs for CEOs to get the strategy and structure set for an agenda of growth”.
“These are capital: good earnings and cash flow, tidy balance sheets and access to capital markets. Conviction: commitment to seeing this though and not flip- flopping. And culture: an organisation that is match fit to advance the firm beyond its core.” Mr Derwent added that the most progressive listed companies were now establishing so-called “corporate venture units”, discrete investment functions looking at emerging technologies and talent.
He said his firm’s point of difference against the global giants of the sector was its connections to the best local directors and executives.
“There’s no doubt that there is the rise of the super boutique. That doesn’t mean that it’s this default to the Aussie battler.
“But I think organisations are looking for something new and different. They’re looking for people that have got a greater connection to the domestic talent pool,” he said.
“That they are looking for the challenger brand which can bring forward some more courageous ideas, because things are moving quickly.
“And just putting Bob or Betty or the usual suspects in a predictable way into jobs is just gone. Derwent, from its heritage, has always been a challenger brand representing the new and different. So therefore that translates to putting different people into board roles than may have been there in the past. “It absolutely speaks to thinking about the X factor that drives private equity success and how can we take that secret sauce to other settings and sectors.
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The boardroom has changed. Permanently. The issues filling board agendas today are not temporary disruptions. They are the operating environment. AI, cyber risk, geopolitical instability, regulation, climate exposure and cost volatility are reshaping how organisations compete, invest and make decisions. For boards, the expectations have changed. Directors are being asked to understand more, engage more deeply and bring increasingly relevant experience to the table. Regulators, investors and other stakeholders are also looking more closely at whether boards are equipped for what lies ahead. The question is no longer simply whether a board is well governed. It is whether the board has the right mix of capability, judgement and adaptability to lead the organisation into its next chapter. The capability conversation is changing Credentials and experience remain important, but they are no longer enough on their own. Curiosity, adaptability and a willingness to keep learning are becoming equally valuable. AI is a clear example. Directors do not need to become technologists, but they do need enough understanding to ask informed questions about risk, ethics, data, accountability and return on investment. Cyber security and data governance present a similar challenge. These issues now sit firmly within board accountability. Scenario planning, crisis preparedness and understanding where the organisation’s exposures lie are no longer occasional agenda items. They are part of the boards regular rhythm. Renewal cannot wait for a vacancy Strong board renewal starts with future strategy. What capabilities will be required over the next five to ten years? Which risks will become more material? Where does the board need deeper commercial, functional or sector experience? Which perspectives may be missing? These questions are more useful than simply asking whose term is ending next. The most effective boards are moving beyond static skills matrices and periodic succession discussions. They are treating board composition as a dynamic capability plan that evolves alongside the organisation. They are refreshing skills matrices against future strategy, building learning agendas across AI, cyber, ESG, risk and geopolitics, reviewing committee structures and linking succession to capability rather than tenure alone. They are also paying closer attention to board dynamics. A technically capable board can still underperform when trust is low, challenge is poorly handled or directors struggle to work together under pressure. Constructive challenge, sound judgement and the ability to listen, learn and adapt are central to effective governance. The briefs are changing Across Derwent’s Board practice, we are seeing more mandates where recent sector and functional experience is a primary driver of selection. Boards are seeking contemporary expertise in areas including technology and AI governance, audit and risk, renewables and infrastructure, capital allocation and mergers and acquisitions. The profile of who is considered “board-ready” is therefore broadening. Traditional governance experience remains valuable, but boards increasingly need directors who bring current knowledge, diverse perspectives and the ability to contribute to new and fast-moving conversations. Board search and succession planning are not simply about filling a vacant seat. They are about building a board that is ready for the future of the organisation. The strongest boards will be those that renew with intent – bringing together the experience, behaviours and perspectives required not only for today’s agenda, but for the decade ahead. ___________________________________________________________________________ If you're reviewing your board's composition, capability, or succession planning, reach out to Michelle Gardiner , Managing Partner – Board Practice, or contact us here . We'd welcome the conversation. Derwent brings together executive search, interim solutions, and board search, partnering with your organisation to find and connect the right high-impact talent to support your leadership needs, now and into the future.
Every leader in the room on Tuesday 5 May had something in common: they are being asked to guide their organisations through a transformation they are still learning to understand themselves. That shared reality – not a technology problem, but a leadership one – set the tone for our AI & The People breakfast in Melbourne, where senior executives gathered to examine what AI transformation actually requires of organisations, their people functions, and their leaders. The internet took decades to reshape business. AI is compressing similar changes into years, sometimes months, and waiting for certainty is not an option. We were privileged to have Peter Tonagh and Jenny Bryant join us as guest speakers – both navigating this transformation firsthand, not observing it from a distance. Five themes shaped the conversation. This is a leadership moment – not a technology decision AI is not primarily a question of which tools to buy. It is a question of how value gets created in an organisation, and who takes responsibility for leading that shift. The organisations pulling ahead are not the ones that have AI figured out – they are the ones learning to experiment intelligently while others hesitate. The most effective leaders are approaching this as conductors of human-AI teams: setting direction, making judgement calls, and ensuring AI amplifies their team's capabilities rather than displacing their critical thinking. That requires adaptive leadership, evolving cultural awareness, and a genuine commitment to bringing people with them through the change. This also reframes where accountability sits within organisations. AI transformation is not an IT project. It is a workforce capability shift – which means HR, learning and development, and operational leaders need to be at the centre of it. Adoption is the constraint – not capability When senior leaders use AI visibly in their own work – for writing, analysis, and decision-making – adoption accelerates across the organisation. Where leaders delegate it to an innovation team, uptake stalls. The tone is set from the top. AI capability is advancing well ahead of organisational uptake. Most businesses already have access to powerful tools but are significantly underutilising them. The gap is not about access or functionality – it is about behaviour, confidence, and whether AI has been genuinely embedded into daily workflows. Many organisations are still treating AI as a procurement decision when it is, in reality, a usage problem. When AI tools are positioned as specialist or optional, adoption stays low and uneven. When they are treated as standard infrastructure – available to everyone, expected to be used, as commonplace as email – adoption normalises quickly. The organisation that emerges looks different As individuals become more capable with AI support, the rationale for traditional management layers is shifting. Where a manager's primary function has been information aggregation and reporting – and AI can do much of that work – the case for that layer weakens. This does not mean fewer leaders. It means leaders operating with broader remits, and decision-making moving closer to the front line. The nature of the work itself is changing too. As AI absorbs routine, process-driven tasks, roles are becoming more focused on judgement, problem definition, creativity, and communication. That shift is not straightforward – the cognitive load on people can increase, and organisations need to be realistic about supporting teams through it. As AI tools become widely available, competitive advantage is shifting to how deeply they are integrated with internal data, knowledge systems, and the specific context of the business. The proprietary knowledge organisations hold becomes more valuable, not less, when AI is properly grounded in it. That grounding requires deliberate effort and consideration – providing AI with the context of the organisation's actual situation, its people, its way of working. The organisations doing this well are building human intelligence into their models, not just deploying generic tools and expecting meaningful results. Beyond organisational structure, AI is also changing how people functions operate in practice. Leaders are using AI to support coaching conversations, sharpen performance management, and improve the quality of feedback to their teams. Used well, AI does not replace those human interactions – it helps leaders show up better in them. Build broadly before you narrow Rather than concentrating effort on a small number of high-impact use cases, the organisations making the most progress are enabling broad, distributed adoption. Hundreds of small improvements across individuals and teams compound into significant productivity gains – individually modest, collectively meaningful. The practical approach: create the conditions for open experimentation without over-structuring it early. Allow teams to test different tools, discover what’s possible for the whole business through different perspectives, styles and responsibilities, share what they are learning, and let value emerge before formalising investment decisions. More mature organisations are beginning to focus on a small number of enterprise-wide priorities – customer experience, supply chain, and contact centres among them – but they arrived there through exploration, not by picking their bets upfront. Explore widely, then narrow with evidence. Talent strategies are evolving – and so is the baseline Hiring is shifting toward the attributes that enable individuals to keep pace with change: curiosity, critical thinking, learning agility, and resilience. Technical skills are increasingly table stakes. The differentiator is how quickly someone can learn, unlearn, and relearn as tools and roles continue to evolve. Building that capability internally is more scalable than chasing scarce external talent. The organisations making progress are treating AI literacy the way organisations treated digital literacy a decade ago – as a baseline expectation built through training, coaching, and everyday use, rather than a specialism held by a small number of experts. The conversation was a reminder that the leaders thriving through this period are not waiting for certainty. They are turning uncertainty into opportunity – experimenting intelligently, bringing their people on the journey with them, and building AI fluency from the inside out across the whole workforce. Our thanks to Lindsay Every , Group Managing Partner at Derwent, for hosting the morning, and to Peter and Jenny for sharing their experience and expertise with such honesty and depth. Continue the conversation For further insights or to explore how Derwent can support your organisation's approach to AI and workforce transformation, connect with our team at melbourne@derwentsearch.com.au To register your interest in future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .
What was once viewed as a temporary stopgap is now recognised as strategic capability. As organisations operate leaner than ever, through automation, AI-enabled processes, and efficiency drives, the pressure point is clear: when major initiatives arise or executive roles become vacant, there is little capacity left to absorb the workload. Interim executive leadership bridges the gap, maintaining momentum and delivering change at pace – while a quality permanent search secures the right long-term appointment. What's Driving This Shift Lean Operations Creating Capacity Walls Organisations that have successfully streamlined operations are vulnerable to the trade-off: when major initiatives emerge, there’s little capacity in the system. A private equity-backed logistics organisation acquiring two competitors can’t pause organic growth to integrate the acquisitions. A publicly listed financial services firm implementing new regulatory requirements can’t pull their Chief Financial Officer off business as usual for nine months. The permanent executive team that runs lean operations brilliantly often lacks the bandwidth for the strategic initiatives that drive growth. Business Continuity During Leadership Transitions Leadership transitions may be more frequent than boards would like. According to FTI Consulting’s 2024 Global CFO Report, 61% of Chief Financial Officers globally report average tenure of less than five years, and Chief Executive Officer turnover follows a similar pattern. When an executive exits, organisations face a choice: rush a permanent appointment, redistribute workload across an already stretched team, or maintain momentum with interim leadership while a thorough permanent search runs in parallel. 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Building those relationships before capacity constraints or leadership transitions emerge is the difference between a reactive conversation and a strategic one. The organisations getting this right aren’t treating interim leadership as a fallback – they’re building it into how they think about leadership capacity and talent strategy. Interim and permanent executive search are powerful partners: one buys the time the other needs to ensure you get the right talent solution for your organisation. If you're exploring how interim executive leadership works in practice, reach out to John O'Leary , Partner – Interim. To learn how interim and permanent executive search could work together for your organisation, contact us here . We'd welcome the conversation. Derwent brings together executive search, interim solutions, and board search, partnering with your organisation to find and connect the right high-impact talent to support your leadership needs, now and into the future.
The boardroom has changed. Permanently. The issues filling board agendas today are not temporary disruptions. They are the operating environment. AI, cyber risk, geopolitical instability, regulation, climate exposure and cost volatility are reshaping how organisations compete, invest and make decisions. For boards, the expectations have changed. Directors are being asked to understand more, engage more deeply and bring increasingly relevant experience to the table. Regulators, investors and other stakeholders are also looking more closely at whether boards are equipped for what lies ahead. The question is no longer simply whether a board is well governed. It is whether the board has the right mix of capability, judgement and adaptability to lead the organisation into its next chapter. The capability conversation is changing Credentials and experience remain important, but they are no longer enough on their own. Curiosity, adaptability and a willingness to keep learning are becoming equally valuable. AI is a clear example. Directors do not need to become technologists, but they do need enough understanding to ask informed questions about risk, ethics, data, accountability and return on investment. Cyber security and data governance present a similar challenge. These issues now sit firmly within board accountability. Scenario planning, crisis preparedness and understanding where the organisation’s exposures lie are no longer occasional agenda items. They are part of the boards regular rhythm. Renewal cannot wait for a vacancy Strong board renewal starts with future strategy. What capabilities will be required over the next five to ten years? Which risks will become more material? Where does the board need deeper commercial, functional or sector experience? Which perspectives may be missing? These questions are more useful than simply asking whose term is ending next. The most effective boards are moving beyond static skills matrices and periodic succession discussions. They are treating board composition as a dynamic capability plan that evolves alongside the organisation. They are refreshing skills matrices against future strategy, building learning agendas across AI, cyber, ESG, risk and geopolitics, reviewing committee structures and linking succession to capability rather than tenure alone. They are also paying closer attention to board dynamics. A technically capable board can still underperform when trust is low, challenge is poorly handled or directors struggle to work together under pressure. Constructive challenge, sound judgement and the ability to listen, learn and adapt are central to effective governance. The briefs are changing Across Derwent’s Board practice, we are seeing more mandates where recent sector and functional experience is a primary driver of selection. Boards are seeking contemporary expertise in areas including technology and AI governance, audit and risk, renewables and infrastructure, capital allocation and mergers and acquisitions. The profile of who is considered “board-ready” is therefore broadening. Traditional governance experience remains valuable, but boards increasingly need directors who bring current knowledge, diverse perspectives and the ability to contribute to new and fast-moving conversations. Board search and succession planning are not simply about filling a vacant seat. They are about building a board that is ready for the future of the organisation. The strongest boards will be those that renew with intent – bringing together the experience, behaviours and perspectives required not only for today’s agenda, but for the decade ahead. ___________________________________________________________________________ If you're reviewing your board's composition, capability, or succession planning, reach out to Michelle Gardiner , Managing Partner – Board Practice, or contact us here . We'd welcome the conversation. Derwent brings together executive search, interim solutions, and board search, partnering with your organisation to find and connect the right high-impact talent to support your leadership needs, now and into the future.
Every leader in the room on Tuesday 5 May had something in common: they are being asked to guide their organisations through a transformation they are still learning to understand themselves. That shared reality – not a technology problem, but a leadership one – set the tone for our AI & The People breakfast in Melbourne, where senior executives gathered to examine what AI transformation actually requires of organisations, their people functions, and their leaders. The internet took decades to reshape business. AI is compressing similar changes into years, sometimes months, and waiting for certainty is not an option. We were privileged to have Peter Tonagh and Jenny Bryant join us as guest speakers – both navigating this transformation firsthand, not observing it from a distance. Five themes shaped the conversation. This is a leadership moment – not a technology decision AI is not primarily a question of which tools to buy. It is a question of how value gets created in an organisation, and who takes responsibility for leading that shift. The organisations pulling ahead are not the ones that have AI figured out – they are the ones learning to experiment intelligently while others hesitate. The most effective leaders are approaching this as conductors of human-AI teams: setting direction, making judgement calls, and ensuring AI amplifies their team's capabilities rather than displacing their critical thinking. That requires adaptive leadership, evolving cultural awareness, and a genuine commitment to bringing people with them through the change. This also reframes where accountability sits within organisations. AI transformation is not an IT project. It is a workforce capability shift – which means HR, learning and development, and operational leaders need to be at the centre of it. Adoption is the constraint – not capability When senior leaders use AI visibly in their own work – for writing, analysis, and decision-making – adoption accelerates across the organisation. Where leaders delegate it to an innovation team, uptake stalls. The tone is set from the top. AI capability is advancing well ahead of organisational uptake. Most businesses already have access to powerful tools but are significantly underutilising them. The gap is not about access or functionality – it is about behaviour, confidence, and whether AI has been genuinely embedded into daily workflows. Many organisations are still treating AI as a procurement decision when it is, in reality, a usage problem. When AI tools are positioned as specialist or optional, adoption stays low and uneven. When they are treated as standard infrastructure – available to everyone, expected to be used, as commonplace as email – adoption normalises quickly. The organisation that emerges looks different As individuals become more capable with AI support, the rationale for traditional management layers is shifting. Where a manager's primary function has been information aggregation and reporting – and AI can do much of that work – the case for that layer weakens. This does not mean fewer leaders. It means leaders operating with broader remits, and decision-making moving closer to the front line. The nature of the work itself is changing too. As AI absorbs routine, process-driven tasks, roles are becoming more focused on judgement, problem definition, creativity, and communication. That shift is not straightforward – the cognitive load on people can increase, and organisations need to be realistic about supporting teams through it. As AI tools become widely available, competitive advantage is shifting to how deeply they are integrated with internal data, knowledge systems, and the specific context of the business. The proprietary knowledge organisations hold becomes more valuable, not less, when AI is properly grounded in it. That grounding requires deliberate effort and consideration – providing AI with the context of the organisation's actual situation, its people, its way of working. The organisations doing this well are building human intelligence into their models, not just deploying generic tools and expecting meaningful results. Beyond organisational structure, AI is also changing how people functions operate in practice. Leaders are using AI to support coaching conversations, sharpen performance management, and improve the quality of feedback to their teams. Used well, AI does not replace those human interactions – it helps leaders show up better in them. Build broadly before you narrow Rather than concentrating effort on a small number of high-impact use cases, the organisations making the most progress are enabling broad, distributed adoption. Hundreds of small improvements across individuals and teams compound into significant productivity gains – individually modest, collectively meaningful. The practical approach: create the conditions for open experimentation without over-structuring it early. Allow teams to test different tools, discover what’s possible for the whole business through different perspectives, styles and responsibilities, share what they are learning, and let value emerge before formalising investment decisions. More mature organisations are beginning to focus on a small number of enterprise-wide priorities – customer experience, supply chain, and contact centres among them – but they arrived there through exploration, not by picking their bets upfront. Explore widely, then narrow with evidence. Talent strategies are evolving – and so is the baseline Hiring is shifting toward the attributes that enable individuals to keep pace with change: curiosity, critical thinking, learning agility, and resilience. Technical skills are increasingly table stakes. The differentiator is how quickly someone can learn, unlearn, and relearn as tools and roles continue to evolve. Building that capability internally is more scalable than chasing scarce external talent. The organisations making progress are treating AI literacy the way organisations treated digital literacy a decade ago – as a baseline expectation built through training, coaching, and everyday use, rather than a specialism held by a small number of experts. The conversation was a reminder that the leaders thriving through this period are not waiting for certainty. They are turning uncertainty into opportunity – experimenting intelligently, bringing their people on the journey with them, and building AI fluency from the inside out across the whole workforce. Our thanks to Lindsay Every , Group Managing Partner at Derwent, for hosting the morning, and to Peter and Jenny for sharing their experience and expertise with such honesty and depth. Continue the conversation For further insights or to explore how Derwent can support your organisation's approach to AI and workforce transformation, connect with our team at melbourne@derwentsearch.com.au To register your interest in future Derwent events, please reach out to us at events@derwentsearch.com.au .
