2024 Spotlight Series #2

In an ever changing governance landscape, many governance professionals are actively increasing their exposure to ESG related projects. It is evident that policy design and implementation can have a direct and significant impact on our environment, business ethics and equality in the workplace. Owen Balmont is Head of ESG at Saga plc. and a recent category winner in the ESG Champions category of the 2024 Governance HOT 100. We spoke to Owen about his career and what it means to him to win this award.

How did you become a governance professional?

Like many in the profession, I took a bit of a roundabout route into governance. I started my career in environmental management, and while working on a major construction project at the Port of Dover, I began chairing and administering certain environmental committees. As a result I worked closely with the Group Company Secretary and with a view to succession planning, I was asked if I might consider training as a Chartered Governance Professional. Seeing an opportunity to expand my skills and reach, I took the chance, and the rest is history!

I've since come full circle, with five years as a Company Secretary under my belt, I'm now Head of ESG at Saga plc, wearing both my governance and environmental hats at the same time!

What has been your biggest career achievement to date?

I've had some amazing career moments so far, and a few highlights come to mind, not least being part of the project team that delivered a successful ￡150 million capital raise to strengthen Saga plc's balance sheet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, I think my number one achievement to date has to be launch of Saga's ESG strategy. In early 2023, with a mandate to drive the sustainability agenda at Saga, I led the development of our double materiality assessment and strategic sustainability framework, resulting in the launch of Saga's first ESG strategy. This was an incredible project to champion, although it has kept me extremely busy! Gaining unprecedented insight into our stakeholders' views on sustainability, and to translate this into meaningful action has been very fulfilling.

Using the momentum provided by Saga's ESG strategy, we now have robust KPIs and targets in place to drive performance improvements and have completed numerous projects to strengthen our approach, including projects on climate change scenario analysis, value chain greenhouse gas emissions accounting and the development of our first standalone ESG report (launching later this year!).

We have arrived at a place where, although there is much more to be done, ESG and sustainability are now firmly on the business agenda at Saga, and we continue to drive action to improve.

Looking ahead, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing the governance profession?

For me, the challenges are the same as they have always been, but on a much bigger scale.

The modern governance professional needs to flex to meet a huge range of needs and demands, from managing the dynamics of the board room, through to applying company law and overseeing corporate ethics. However, the sheer rate of development in new frontiers such as sustainability, political uncertainty and artificial intelligence are adding extra levels of complexity to the roles of those working in governance, that I think we are only beginning to realise.

In the past we have looked to regulation to set the rules that we should apply in our work, but governments can no longer keep pace with the changes we are seeing in areas such as technology, and the need to act decisively on vitally important issues including climate change. Instead, businesses from startups through to multinationals are leading the way on navigating these issues, and in my opinion the modern governance professional plays an incredibly important role in helping companies get it right.

I feel that the role of the governance professional is more important but also more challenging than it has ever been. I would encourage governance professionals to look beyond company administration and see the huge potential of their wide ranging skillset in driving positive change and shaping the key issues of our time.

What does winning in this category mean to you?

It is a genuine honour to win the category of ESG Champion in the Governance Hot 100. Driving progress on sustainability has been my mission for a long time, and a big reason for entering the governance profession was to boost my skills and provide myself with a platform to do exactly that. There are so many amazing governance professionals out there doing incredible work in the ESG space, so to win this category is a very special career moment.

Winning this category is recognition that I am beginning to achieve my personal goals of creating real progress on sustainability. The past year has been a whirlwind for me, but one in which I feel I have achieved a lot. I am grateful to Saga for giving me the opportunity to test my skills in driving the ESG agenda, to our Group Company Secretary, Vicki Haynes for nominating me, and of course to the Governance Hot 100 judges, DMJ Recruitment and Computershare Governance Services for having me in the list Thank you!

DMJ Recruitment Governance HOT 100 is sponsored by Computershare Entity Solutions