Ensuring that people with the right personal qualities serve on corporate boards has never been more important. Other candidates might be cleverer and more socially skilled. But when faced with difficult decisions and moral dilemmas, will they assume responsibility, think for themselves, question and make fair, balanced and defensible decisions? It is in our long-term interest that we bring into corporate boardrooms people who act with integrity and instinctively do the ‘right thing’— the ‘right thing’ by their individual consciences in particular circumstances, the ‘right thing’ for the reputations and prospects of their companies, and the ‘right thing’ for all our futures.

A reader of newspapers or viewer of television news bulletins, who also glances at corporate mission statements and codes of conduct, must wonder what is going wrong. Financial institutions have allocated billions of pounds to covering the costs of miss-selling claims. Across Europe, traces of horsemeat have been found in products labeled as beef. Scandals and allegations of fraud and bribery abound.

Quite common practices seem far removed from statements of corporate values and the sanitized prose of annual reports. Boards misrepresent their company’s finances. They exaggerate achievements and conceal failings.

They take decisions that destroy value, harm the interests of stakeholders or pollute the environment. They condone or turn a blind eye to dubious practices and illegal activities.

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