Local Governance Manager at BP Southern Africa (BPSA)

The statutory, secretariat, governance, record management and compliance for BP Southern Africa Proprietary Limited and the other bp subsidiaries in Southern Africa sits under the ultimate responsibility of the bp Company Secretary's Office (CSO). The delivery of this work has been outsourced to a third-party services provider (PwC) and this role is to support:

• the management and administration of the local legal entity Board governance and compliance activities, including co-ordination and liaison with bp stakeholders as necessary.
• the bp appointed directors of joint venture operations in Southern Africa with the administration of their board governance requirements.
• the project management and delivery of special projects such as internal entity restructurings or elimination of dormant entities in Southern Africa in collaboration with the bp global entity restructuring team.
• the oversight of the delivery of services by PwC in collaboration with the subsidiary governance team within the CSO and to act as a point of contact in South Africa for PwC

Job Description:

Primary role accountabilities:

Board meeting process

• Management of the development of the Annual Plan of all board, committee and Shareholders Activities in line with the Companies Act and support with the development of the agenda for board meetings based on the Annual Plan and previous meetings, including coordinating input from the bp Southern Africa leadership, all in collaboration with PwC.
• Define and manage the process for all business submissions to board and committee papers in line with the requirements under the Companies Act, including establishment of clear roles and responsibilities between PwC, the local governance manager and other contributors and tracking and collation of submissions for circulation.
• Collation and dissemination of all board paper submissions within BoardVantage (bpSA board portal).
• Liaises with PwC to determine and arrange dates for Board/Committee meetings – sole interface within bp with Chairs of companies and other directors for this purpose.
• Liaises with PwC to arrange/ co-ordinate/ give due notice of the meetings (board meetings, board sub-committee meetings, shareholder meetings, trustee meetings etc.).
• Liaises with building reception to register meeting attendees (including PwC staff) for entry passes/access and ensures technology is working (audio/video conference facilities) and catering is arranged for the board meetings as necessary.
• Support PwC with the finalisation, circulation, approval and recording of board and shareholder meeting minutes and the dissemination and tracking of actions assigned at board meetings.

Director support

• Be the central point of contact for directors and trustees for administrative matters (diary confirmations and facilitation of attendance) and oversee and facilitate the necessary level of interaction between (i) management and the directors / trustees/ shareholder representatives; and (ii) PwC in relation to the PwC scope of services.
• Co-ordinates Chairpersons’ sessions with staff at various locations
• Arranges travel for directors and trustees (flights, accommodation, transportation, visas for directors/NEDs and preparing travel itineraries)
• Processes travel and other expenses incurred and submitted by directors/NEDs on a database for use by the Tax Team.
• Facilitates the remuneration of directors – raising payment schedules, signing off with CFO and sending to finance for payment.
• Director/NED payroll and related queries

Joint venture support

• Administrative support to the bp appointed directors of incorporated joint venture entities in Southern Africa, including liaison with the central non operated joint venture center of excellence.

CSO liaison

• Overseeing the delivery of the PwC services in southern Africa in line with the global company secretarial services agreement and any schedule to that agreement agreed for South Africa from time to time and being a local point of contact for CSO (Head of subsidiary governance) to support the escalation and PwC performance evaluation process set out in the PwC agreement and support the implementation of CSO guidelines and practices as applicable in Southern Africa.
• Support to the application and implementation of legal entity structure or governance projects driven by CSO in Southern Africa.

Other

• Ensures compliance with delegation of authority by issuing extracts of the existing Delegations of Authority to 3rd parties and work with PwC to ensure clear line of sight over legal delegations of authority from the South African legal entities.
• Holds delegation of Information Officer under the Promotion of Access to Information Act and collate responses to any information requests received on behalf of BPSA.
• Support with other aspects of legal entity governance in Southern Africa as may be required.
• Ensures that the company letterhead is updated as required.

Experience and Expertise Required:

Educational background:

• BCom Honours, relevant Degree with Law, Finance or Business Administration as a subject.
• Proficiency in all Microsoft applications including but not limited to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Experience and capabilities:

• 3-5 years’ experience in corporate administration, company secretarial or corporate office environment (experience supporting senior management or directors, administrative experience, co-ordinating functions for executive members).
• Strong analytical, organizational and time management skills including attention to detail for data entry/record maintenance and strong organization skills to prepare timely and accurate reports.
• A strong understanding of good governance principles.
• Strong people and project management skills, including building trusted relationships, influencing and an ability to provide constructive challenge and effective collaboration.
• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills and comfortable handling large workloads under time pressure in a complex/matrixed organisation.