She has juggled boardroom discussions, from how to boost beer sales to getting people to buy more coffee. She has witnessed the powerful and the mighty in companies react to success and failure. But as a company secretary, Kathryne Maundu knows too well what gets out of boardrooms and what does not.
On Tuesday, Ms Maundu announced her exit from her role of company secretary at the East African Breweries, BAT Kenya and Eaagads. She had on September 30, stepped down from Safaricom where she had been for over seven years.
In her capacity as a partner at Stamford Corporate Services LLP, which is part of Bowmans Coulson Harney LLP, Ms Maundu has also managed to serve over 250 companies as a secretary over the years, giving her privileged access to thousands of key conversations in the boardrooms of multiple sectors of the economy for the past 17 years.
“As a company secretary, you cannot see yourself as a paper-pusher. You see yourself as a trusted advisor. We hear a lot of things in the boardroom. You’ve got to know what to share with third parties and why. A lot of things we hear are very confidential and it calls for a heightened level of integrity,” she says.
As busy as her schedule has been, she describes herself as a “fun-loving and happy-go-lucky young woman,” who has diligently served all these companies and now feels it is time to get some time back into her hands.
Kathryne Maundu: From a note-taker to a multiple boardroom figure
“It is part of my goals and the professional path that I want to follow. I have done what I sought to achieve. I have enriched my experiences. I have built networks and added value to the extent that I could,” Ms Maundu says on why she has opted out of the four listed companies.
“It is time for someone else to take the mantle. I am in a space where I want to pursue my career differently and get into a different industry.”
She is not hanging up on the company secretary career yet. She also wants to delve into mentorship because “I was also handheld.”
“Maybe it is a mid-life crisis. At this point in my life, I want to take a bit of a step back and focus on one industry and provide my services to one account. I am still debating about which industry,” she says.
In her next season, she wants to teach so as to help produce certified public secretaries who are equipped with theory and practice.
While many people think of company secretaries as paper-pushers, note-takers or administrative servants to boards, Ms Maundu says company secretaries get to hear first-hand from the mighty of companies, giving them a chance to grow into all they want to be.
Her role has allowed her to hear the pains, the highs and the lows of management and the guidance of the board and management on strategic issues, opening up her world to growth.
“You are sitting at the table where decisions are being made; hearing everything about a company and how it runs. You are at the heart of the company, so you get to have an overview of all the matters that impact this company. You can use that information to grow you,” she says.
Working at Stamford Corporate Services, which outsources services such as that of a company secretary, allowed her to render her services in different firms as an external company secretary at the same time.
At Safaricom, where she has been for eight years, she describes the experience as exciting, thrilling and one that offered a lot of valuable learning from both a technical perspective and also engaging with different personalities.
“I have seen the board of Safaricom evolve and get to see strong personalities come in. Engaging with them, extracting value from them and also adding value to such brilliant men and women has been exciting,” she says.
“Getting to add value in such an environment where you are surrounded by people who are brilliant in their own capacity and learning how to collaborate and add value has left me with rich memories and experiences.”
Ms Maundu, 44, an advocate of the High Court, a certified public secretary and an accredited governance auditor with the Institute of Certified Secretaries of Kenya says it has sometimes been tough shuttling from the boardroom of one company to another.
“It has been quite a task but I have also had a good support team. So while I have been the one facing the directors and the board, I have had a team helping with the day-to-day tasks of each company relating to compliance and ensuring good governance,” she says.
Serving multiple companies has meant being organised with her diary but also making a lot of sacrifices around her personal space.
“Sometimes I have scheduling clashes. So, it is about how I communicate to another company that a particular date is not possible, at the same time ensuring I do not shortchange any of them.”
With the exit, she now hopes to strike a balance between the high-pressure job and her personal life.
If she was taking minutes for her own life, she says, the next minute would be about Kathryne.
“I want to be significant to society and add value differently. I cannot do this if I am spending more time on service delivery. I am also thinking about my wellness, family, friends and hobbies,” she says.
Kathryne Maundu. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Before becoming a company secretary, Ms Maundu worked at Deloitte where she rose from an associate in 2004 to a consultant, assistant manager and manager before exiting nine years later as a senior manager to become a partner at Stamford Corporate Services LLP.
“Deloitte built me into who I am today. It exposed me to numerous clients. We were encouraged not to work in silos so I could actually sit with auditors to understand their work,” says Ms Maundu.
“One of the things you need to understand [as a company secretary] is interpreting basic financial statements because that is what your board is doing. I was able to pick this at Deloitte as well as how to address the pain points of a client. I have applied these lessons when engaging with my directors.”
Over the years, the role of a company secretary has evolved that one needs to be conversant with laws and regulations in the market, share that with directors and make sure they are complying.
Ms Maundu has also seen a shift in boardroom discussions from operational to strategic focus and new areas such as heightened data protection, cyber-security and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) agenda.
“Now we are talking more about people, culture and purpose unlike just before when it was more about profits. ESG is now a hot topic in boardrooms,” she says.
Another major change she has witnessed is the uptake of technology in the boardroom. From the days of receiving a stack of papers, she says, now many meetings are supported by e-board platforms. But one pain point remains: minute writing.
For those starting out their careers as company secretaries, she advises that the onus is on them to explain to companies what else they can do apart from minute-writing, even though secretaries cannot sit in meetings and contribute to strategy discussions.
“Some of the tactics can be to go through the chairperson and directors before the meeting since by that time you have looked through board papers and your input can enrich their discussion,” she says.
But even for minute writing, she says, the style of writing has to be one that can help not just the current board and management but also future boards to understand why their predecessors made the decisions they did.
While many company secretaries now happen to have a legal background, Ms Maundu says some of the finest company secretaries she encountered during her years did not have a background in law.
“Lawyers do have an advantage because there is a lot of nexus between the law and company secretarial work. But with hard work and reading, that gap is easily bridged. You don’t need a law degree to learn about board dynamics and emotional intelligence,” says Ms Maundu.
And while the general perception is that the market is flooded with company secretaries, Ms Maundu says Stamford has struggled to get the right talent.
She advises those with skills of note-taking alone but working or hoping to practice as company secretaries to enrich their skills in governance audit, and communication, and be emotionally intelligent to handle the different personalities in boardrooms.
One should also keep up with technology, track the changing regulations, analyse the impact on the board and also have attention to detail and the ability to read the mood of the board as quickly as possible, according to Ms Maundu.
“Every experience I have had in my journey, even with small companies, has not been in vain. It has enriched my overall journey. I have come to appreciate how founders of companies hold dearly their entities,” she says.
