Non-executive directors play a vital role in shaping the strategy and governance of UK companies. Independence from management should allow them to take a broad, long-term view of strategy, and gives legitimacy to their role in scrutinising management plans.

This stance also means that non-execs should be well-equipped for guiding and overseeing corporate responsibility. However, there is still a wide variety in the extent and nature of non-exec involvement in responsible business strategy.

Corporate responsibility has become a board-level concern for UK non-execs only recently, says Craig Mackenzie, senior lecturer in sustainable enterprise at the University of Edinburgh. “In the last five years it’s become much more formally significant for non-execs of big companies,” he says.

Upcoming Ethical Corporation conferences & events:
How to manage Social & Environmental Risk in the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries
London, 22-23 March 2010 The Responsible Business Summit 2010
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Novotel West Hotel, London, Evening of 4th May 2010
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on the evening of the first day
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