Global Governance Services

Chris is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Global Governance Services Ltd. He holds a number of board appointments in the UK and overseas. He is a regular chairman and speaker at international conferences, and has written many articles and books on corporate governance. His latest book, "Corporate Governance in the European Union", was published by GGS in 2010. Orders can be placed on this website.

He was formerly Director of Professional Standards and Professional Development at the Institute of Directors (IoD) in the UK. Prior to joining the IoD he was the Director of the Centre for Director Education at Leeds Business School and has held senior management positions in British Airways and the Overseas Development Administration.

Chris is also an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City University London, a Research Fellow of Cranfield Business School, a Fellow of the Caux Round Table, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Executive Fellow of Henley Management College. He has an MBA, an MSc and an MPhil and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.Chris is based in the GGS office in London and works world-wide.

Professor Bernard Taylor is a Non Executive Director of GGS. He is also Emeritus Professor at Henley Management College, where he was formerly Director of the Centre for Board Effectiveness and Head of Faculty in Strategy and International Management.

He has founded two international journals "Long Range Planning" and "The Journal of General Management" and written 24 books. He also established two European Councils in Corporate Strategy and Board Effectiveness for the Conference Board Europe. He is a former External Examiner for the Institute of Directors' Diploma in Company Direction. His latest book with Philip Stiles is "Boards at Work: How Directors View their Roles and Responsibilities" (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Yvonne has been a Non Executive Director of GGS since 2004. She has over 30 years finance technology experience, and provides expertise in the areas of strategy, business development, marketing and information technology.

David is an Associate of GGS. He is President of The Anderson Governance Group, an independent governance advisory firm dedicated to assisting boards and management teams enhance leadership performance. He advises boards, regulators and investors based on his international research and practice. David speaks and writes on leadership in governance and management, including a regular column in Director entitled "Inside the Boardroom" published by the Institute of Corporate Directors in Canada. He co-edited the 2001 US NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Board Evaluation and served as Special Advisor to four subsequent Commissions. He is a frequent guest on the Business News Network and CBC Newsworld.

David holds a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from The University of Western Ontario, where he instructed Organizational Behaviour, and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors in Canada. He serves on two not-for-profit boards, chairing one board and one governance committee.

Dr Samy Nathan Garas is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), Bahrain Campus. In 2006, he was awarded the NYIT ‘Professor of the Year'. He has been a Lecturer on courses for Certified Islamic Public Accountant arranged by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) in Bahrain. During the last eight years, all his studies and writings have been focused on corporate governance in Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). He has also contributed to corporate governance conferences in the US through the Academy of Management, as well as in the UK with Henley Management College. He is a long standing member of such professional organizations as the Academy of Management and International Management Association. He has over 20 years of experience in Accounting and Finance in both academia and practice in Egypt and Bahrain. He held senior positions in multinational firms in Egypt (Egyptian Engineering Agencies and International Publications Ltd). In 2011, he was licensed as a certified public accountant (CPA).

Dr. Larson provides consulting services to international, multilateral, and private sector organizations. She has facilitated innovative, cross-sectoral approaches to program development in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East. Her qualifications include a Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

Some relevant experiences include:

• Senior Advisor and co-facilitator for Faculty training on board leadership for Global Corporate Governance Forum ("Forum") of IFC / World Bank in Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, France, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Morocco, Poland, UAE, USA and Vietnam.
• Co-author of the Forum's Corporate Governance Board Leadership Training Resources, the toolkit on Preventing and Solving Corporate Governance Disputes, and resources to build board capacities for governing banks.

Dr. Larson is an Advisory Board Member at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution of George Mason University and Faculty member at Columbia University. Research and practice focus on strategic leadership, executive learning, conflict resolution strategies, multilateral negotiation, developmental assessment, corporate societal responsibility (CSR), multi-stakeholder partnerships and sustainability.

Wendy provides administrative support to the GGS team, and is based in the London office. She holds a BSc and prior to joining GGS in 2006 worked in education support services.

Debola is a Fellow of the International Association of Book-keepers and a Member of the International Association of Accounting Professionals. She has over a decade's experience within the UK banking sector, mostly within HSBC plc.