The Inaugural Corporate Governance Conference was hosted jointly by the Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa at the Stellenbosch Business School (SBS) and, the School of Accountancy (SoA), Economic and Management Sciences Faculty at Stellenbosch University (SU) from 12 to 13 December, 2022 in a hybrid format.
The conference preprogramme kicked off with a scenic tour of Chapman's Peak, a visit to Cape Point, and a lunch in Simon's Town followed by a late afternoon cocktail event the next day to officially open the conference. Here, keynote speeches were delivered by Dr Nicky Newton-King, former CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Prof Mervin King, former Chair of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa. On the first day of the conference, attended by 90 delegates from both South African and international universities and institutions, Prof Sibusiso Moyo, SU Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate studies, officially welcomed conference participants and other special guests.
In total 32 papers were presented in four streams: Ethical Leadership; Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting; Environmental and Social Responsibility; and Assurance, Risk and Corporate Governance. The streams were moderated by Dr Lee-Ann Steenkamp (SBS); Prof Tankiso Moloi (University of Johannesburg); Prof Reggy Hooghiemstra (University of Groningen); and Prof Riaan Rudman (SoA, SU).
Awards included, best full-length paper (sponsored by SAICA), best work-in-progress paper (sponsored by the Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa), and the best student paper (sponsored by Lexis Nexis). These were respectively awarded to Prof Francois Toerien (SU) and his co-authors from the University of Cape Town, Does Board Gender Diversity Improve ESG Disclosure? Evidence from South Africa; Prof Daniel Malan from Trinity College (Dublin), Back from the Brink - EOH and Ethical Leadership; and Lotte Smeets and her co-authors from KU Leuven (Belgium), It Takes Two to Tango: CEO-CFO Dynamics and Financial Reporting Quality.
Eligible full-length papers will be published in a special issue of the South African Journal of Business Management (SAJBM), which is listed on the Web of Science, DOAU, and SCOPUS indexes. Prof Nicolene Wesson, Head of the Centre for Corporate Governance at the SBS, and Dr George Nel, Deputy Director of Research at the SoA, acted as the technical committee of the conference and guest editors for the SAJBM special issue.
The 2022 conference not only highlighted the need for sharing experiences on corporate governance, but also the value of collaborations across different disciplines and institutions. The conference technical committee is currently planning the second Corporate Governance Conference.
