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Mercator News & Global Events Round Up
In what felt like an unusual period over the last couple of years, the Mercator by Citco team were busy attending and speaking at events focused on the primary issues and opportunities pervading the Global Entity Portfolio Management (GEPM) and subsidiary governance industry.
Here we provide a roundup of two key events from 2021, where we aim to provide clarity around key challenges facing business leaders and corporate counsels across industries and around the world.
Association of Corporate Counsel, Hong Kong – 27 October 2021
On October 27, Mercator were invited by the Association of Corporate Counsel to speak to Hong Kong members on ‘Stability and Consistency in GEPM’, introducing the technology essentials for Legal Departments.
Featuring data from the Mercator Entity Management Report, Kariem Abdellatif, Head of Mercator by Citco and Chris Butler OBE, Head of Operations led members through an interactive session on the implementation, usage and connectivity of digital tools in GEPM as well as discussing the corporate governance trends and challenges observed in APAC.
In the session, the discussion focused on common challenges encountered by multinationals and how or what technology, such as electronic signature systems and entity and task management systems, have helped them overcome these. It placed a heavy focus on implementation of technology and connectivity between other departments, such as tax, finance and HR, within companies to speed up the business processes, reduce costs and minimize manual mistakes.
Read Kariem and Chris’ Top 5 takeaway’s from the event here.
The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland’s Subsidiary Governance Summit – 1-2 December 2021
From the 1-2nd of December, Mercator sponsored and attended The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland’s Subsidiary Governance Virtual Summit, where experts discussed the ever-evolving regulatory landscape in the UK and other jurisdictions.
Topics included: the new risks agenda and guide to the board, merger and acquisitions and the need for governance to transform with an agile structure and new process, and the UK regulatory landscape and how it impacts on future governance decisions.
Notably for Mercator, Kariem Abdellatif was invited to give the opening address, exploring the regional and jurisdictional dynamics in the Global Entity Portfolio Management industry as outlined in his article for Governance & Compliance magazine.
Chris Butler also led a panel discussion looking at how multinationals can stay on top of Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) compliance. He summarizes and outlines the key principles for compliance and reflects on recent worldwide Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) developments in his article here.
Mercator team expansion
The end of 2021 was also a busy period for recruitment, with two key hires. Sara Winslow joined us as a Business Development Manager for North America. In this role, Sara will be working with counsel on Corporate Governance solutions and compliance including Global Entity Portfolio Management. Sara’s experience in sales and business development spans over twenty years including prior experience in the legal services industry.
Also joining the team is Mariella Berscheid, who leads the Mercator contracts team and will be responsible for the negotiation of non-standard complex contractual documentation and provide advice and guidance to the Mercator teams. Mariella’s experience in the legal and multinational finance industry spans over a decade, with a specialism in Contract Law, Company Law and Litigation.