IMPLEMENTATION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ANCHORING IT IN THE CULTURE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANISA KHADAR
Dr. Adnan, throughout your career, you have
approached
corporate
governance
from
numerous perspectives – as a researcher,
university professor, advisor to companies and
boards, CEO and as a board member. How has
your view on corporate governance evolved?
The journey for me started when I was in university as
a researcher and as a professor, and my initial focus on
value creation and corporate governance related to the
issue of how countries, particularly the GCC countries,
manage their wealth. During these years, I think I read
every book on leadership and corporate governance, and
this was the time, of course, when corporate governance
itself was evolving, particularly in response to scandals
such as Enron.
But my own interests in governance were changing as well.
When I became the CEO and a board member of various
boards and investment committees, I started viewing
corporate governance increasingly as a tool to add value and
improve performance. And my thinking in this regard was
impacted by the great people I was surrounded by, with whom
I discussed and debated various governance issues and these
definitely broadened my perspective on governance.
When making investment decisions, one of the first things
we looked at was corporate governance in these entities.
We went through a similar process with our partner
companies as well. But we also looked at corporate
governance internally, how it related to our own company.
Interview with Dr. Adnan Al Soufi
Article by Leonardo Peklar
Hawkamah issue02 56pages.indd 25
When I became the CEO of SEDCO, I had to transform it into
a holding company, and I had to establish seven separate
boards for the subsidiaries as part of this process. This
process required us to look at corporate governance from
a very practical and hands-on perspective.
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