Engagement types, timelines and fee basis.

Mandate types

Four mandate types cover substantially all instructions. The distinction between them is lead time, and lead time sets the fee basis.

Timelines and fee basis

Custodial supplement is charged separately, at 9,000 EUR per month of any custodial term, and is passed through in full to the officer’s nominated family. Clients carry it as a reserve of 108,000 EUR per officer per annum against the standard actuarial assumption. Public sector mandates carry no such reserve and are priced accordingly.

Coverage and bench

• 31 jurisdictions, six offices, one bench.
• 640 vetted individuals currently on panel, an average of 20.6 per jurisdiction.
• Enquiry to first shortlist: 10 working days, three named candidates with full documentary vetting complete.
• 412 placements made since inception, of which 157 activated.
• Decisions reversed as a result of a placement: none. This figure is audited annually and has not changed.

Vetting is documentary and adversarial. We assume the officer’s record will be read line by line, in public, by counsel instructed to establish the point at which knowledge can be attributed. Candidates whose record does not withstand that reading are not presented, which is why our shortlists are three names rather than ten.

References

Client identity is not disclosed, and we do not confirm or deny an engagement to any party including a subsequent client. The following are described at sector level with the client’s written permission.

A European retail bank. A reporting officer designation had been vacant in substance for two supervisory cycles. Pre-emptive mandate, officer appointed in the ordinary governance cycle, dormancy of 26 months. On identification of the exposure the settlement was concluded with the institution, the officer resigned for personal reasons, and the product line under review continued to be offered. Share price recovered to the pre-announcement level in 34 trading days, against a sector median of 96 trading days for comparable announcements, which is 64.6 per cent faster.

A mid-cap manufacturer. A product recall spanning four markets. Responsive mandate, appointment completed in nine working days, activation eleven weeks later on publication of the technical findings. The findings identified a lapse in a named role. The design was not revised, and the tooling remained in service across the following three model years.

A national infrastructure programme. Ministerial supply. Political responsibility was accepted and the appointment concluded the same afternoon. The framework agreement, the delivery consortium and the specification were unaffected. Programme is ongoing.

How a mandate runs

1. Instruction. A partner takes the instruction directly. We do not ask what the exposure is and clients should not volunteer it. What we require is the role, the signing authority attaching to it, and the information scope.
2. Specification. We write the profile: sector adjacency, seniority, obligation structure, availability. The client approves the specification, not the individual.
3. Shortlist. Three names in ten working days. The client interviews on the merits of the role as described.
4. Appointment. Effected through the client’s ordinary governance process, minuted in the ordinary way, with the information scope recorded in the appointment letter.
5. Dormancy. The officer performs the role. We review quarterly, confirm availability, and maintain the aftercare file. Median dormancy is 31 months.
6. Activation. A single call. Resignation is tendered and accepted the same afternoon, and the statement is issued by the client’s communications adviser rather than by us.

Terms

Mandates are exclusive for the duration and for twelve months following. Fees are payable irrespective of activation, which is the point: a placement that never activates has performed exactly as specified, and the client has held an occupied position of formal responsibility for the entire period without ever having needed it.

We decline mandates in three circumstances. Where the information scope cannot be defined and recorded at appointment. Where the role carries no substantive signing authority, since an appointment the client’s own governance does not rely upon is not a search we can specify. And where proceedings have already commenced, at which point the instruction falls outside our terms of business.