Governance Committee

Pauline is a non-executive director and chair of a number of organisations. Pauline is also the President and Chair of Governance Institute of Australia and a member of the International Council of The Chartered Governance Institute.
Pauline is recognised as an expert in broad financial services, governance, risk management and public policy.
She has over 30 years’ experience in the Australian financial services industry, including as a senior regulator with ASIC, various directorships on listed and fiduciary entities, CEO positions and as an international adviser on pensions governance.

Charlie is Immediate Past President of the CGIUKI Division. He is also a member of the CGIUKI's Company Secretaries Forum and the Association for the General Counsel and Company Secretaries of FTSE 100 companies. As Group Company Secretary for Experian plc in Dublin, he covers corporate governance, statutory and listing rules compliance and reporting, board support, shareholder and share plan services, and sustainability.

John Heaton became Global President in 2024 having previously been the President of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland from 2017 to 2020. He has been a member of the Institute since 1996 but started his career with Lloyds Bank moving into their share registration subsidiary and working closely with company secretaries and governance professionals. He still does consultancy work, but leading the Institute at such a pivotal time is the focus of much of what he now does.

Gill Meller FCG HKFCG (PE) is MTR Corporation Limited’s Legal & Governance Director. She is responsible for leading the Company’s environmental, social and governance initiatives and for overseeing the Company’s legal, company secretarial, insurance, risk and assurance management and procurement and supply chain functions.

Gill is qualified to practise as a solicitor in Hong Kong and England and Wales. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Geography from Hertford College, the University of Oxford and obtained her postgraduate qualifications in law from The College of Law in the United Kingdom. She is the chair of the Legal Committee of The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Listing Committee of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and an independent director of Hong Kong, China Rugby. She is also a representative of the China/Hong Kong Division on the Council of the international Chartered Governance Institute, a former President of The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute, and a Fellow of both of these institutes.

With more than three decades of experience advising boards and executives across five continents, Dr Denis Mowbray is a globally recognised authority on governance and organisational performance. His doctoral research pioneered the “Third-Team” concept, a framework that reframes the relationship between a board and its executive leadership team not as adversarial or merely transactional, but as a unified, high-performing team whose behavioural dynamics are the true determinants of organisational success. For directors of private companies, where the board–management relationship is often closer and more fluid, this construct has proven especially powerful.

Denis’ work moves governance beyond the compliance-first mindset that dominates much of the field, focusing instead on the behavioural and cultural drivers that separate boards that govern with impact from those that merely govern. He has applied this approach across a broad spectrum of entity types, private and publicly listed companies, family-owned enterprises, government ministries, and not-for-profit organisations, advising high-profile clients across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Pacific. His tailored programs combine governance reviews, board effectiveness assessments, and strategic facilitation to deliver measurable change in how boards and executive teams work together.

A Fellow and Vice President of the Chartered Governance Institute (CGI Global), the world’s leading professional body for governance practitioners, Denis brings both the credentialed rigour of a senior governance professional and the perspective of an active practitioner. He is a sought-after speaker, educator, and published writer who bridges academic research and boardroom reality, regularly contributing to the global conversation on what effective governance looks like in practice.

David Simmonds is the Chief Strategy, Sustainability and Governance Officer of CLP Holdings Limited. He leads the legal and corporate governance functions for the Group and is responsible for CLP Group strategic planning and the strategy agenda as well as driving the Group’s sustainability agenda. David is the Immediate Past President of The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (HKCGI) and is a Fellow of both The Chartered Governance Institute and HKCGI. He is the Chair of the Task Force on Energy for the UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network and a director and a member of the Executive Council of the Business Environment Council Limited. David is also a member of the Hong Kong Standing Committee on Company Law Reform and the Hong Kong Advisory Committee of The Fred Hollows Foundations. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.