Assistant Company Secretary

Assistant Company Secretary

Job purpose

The purpose of this role is to support the delivery of a first-class service to the business and executive management across the full range of governance, company secretarial and share plans requirements of a global FTSE 250 listed plc. A key member of the Corporate Secretariat team, this individual will provide robust, timely and professional support to the Company Secretary and deliver excellent company secretarial service to Morgan Advanced Materials Plc and its subsidiaries, alongside another qualified team member. The individual will have an opportunity to work across the full range of Corporate Secretariat activities with responsibility for key work streams and projects.

The right candidate will have a good technical knowledge and experience of working in a listed plc environment and will be expected to apply their expertise in improving processes, respond to business needs and take the function forward.

About us

Morgan Advanced Materials is a global manufacturer of advanced carbon and ceramic materials for complex and technologically demanding applications. The versatility and performance of ceramics and carbon materials enables us to support a wide variety of applications in diverse end-markets.

Key Figures: Revenue £1,115m (2023), ~8,700 employees, manufacturing in 25+ countries, and customers in 100+ countries. A UK PLC with head office located in Windsor, Berkshire UK. Listed on London Stock Exchange; Member of the FTSE 250 Index.

Key accountabilities

The Company Secretariat is a highly regarded part of the head office team and has regular access to executive management, including the CEO, CFO, Group HRD and Group General Counsel. The team is responsible for governance, running the programme of Board and Committee meetings, the legal and regulatory requirements associated with a UK-listed plc and advice on the administration of share plans. The team works closely with Reward, Tax, Treasury and Finance functions and provides guidance on governance and compliance, including corporate reporting, executive remuneration and statutory compliance. There is ongoing communication with the business in relation to the governance of subsidiary entities across the world.

Although responsibilities within the team reflect the core regulatory requirements of a global listed plc and the key events associated with the annual financial cycle, the team’s priorities are constantly changing to align with the needs of the business. The emphasis is on providing a high-quality service and the volume of routine processes in this role is minimal.

The Company Secretary will work closely with the new team member to help him or her to become familiar with the role and the Morgan Group. This means that the role will develop at pace with the individual and there is great scope for broadening and extending experience.

Show us what you’re made of.

Responsibilities will typically include the following:

Board support

· Supporting the Company Secretary in managing the annual programme of Board and Committee meetings including drafting agendas and Board and Committee papers

· Acting as Company Secretary to a committee as and when required

Corporate governance

· Working as part of a team to deliver on the corporate governance requirements for Morgan Advanced Materials Plc, ensuring compliance with the Group’s UK listing continuing obligations including maintaining accurate insider lists, drafting stock exchange announcements, managing the end-to-end dividend payment process

· Preparing the Corporate Governance Report and Directors’ report in the annual report and supporting the year end process

· Playing a key role in the delivery of the AGM

· Advising the Company Secretary and key stakeholders on corporate governance developments, staying abreast of key changes. Drafting papers for the Morgan Advanced Materials Plc Board and Board Committees.

Share schemes/Share registration

· Working closely with the Group Reward team and external administrators, to manage the various executive share plans and the Sharesave scheme. Ensure the plans are run effectively and in compliance with legislation. Provide guidance on interpretation of scheme rules

· Maintaining accurate records relating to share capital, including share plan transactions relating to executive share plans and the Sharesave scheme. Review director interests’ spreadsheet information to ensure that these are accurate

· Main point of contact with registrars, taking responsibility for shareholder/ registration matters and shareholder communications.

Subsidiary compliance

· Involvement in administration of the non-UK subsidiaries across all regions

· Companies Act compliance for the UK subsidiary companies (approx. 25 companies).

Systems, processes and ad-hoc projects

· Ensuring Corporate Secretariat has documented and streamlined checklists and processes to manage key activities. Ensuring these are readily available to team members, identifying opportunities to streamline and enhance. Keep effectiveness of checklists under review.

· Responsibility for ensuring the information on the various systems and portals supporting the delivery of the work of the Secretariat are accurate including through keeping the effectiveness of checklists under review and ensuring the quarterly review and audit processes are run appropriately.

· Leading role on corporate projects that may arise from time to time, including company name changes, director changes, acquisitions, disposals and restructuring and all other Group Treasury and Group Tax driven projects.

Qualifications and Experience

· CGI qualified, with at least 3 years post-qualification experience in a FTSE 350 listed plc.

· Strong knowledge of the UK Companies Act, UK Corporate Governance Code and the Listing Rules, Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and the Market Abuse Regulation.

Competency

Skills, attitudes and behaviours desired:

· Happy to embrace a broad-ranging role which ranges from advising on governance to performing more routine matters

· A high level of attention to detail

· Build credibility with Directors and senior management, and form effective relation- ships with external providers (e.g. auditors, registrars and share scheme providers)

· Takes ownership, works with a sense of urgency, continuously reprioritising competing priorities in relation to a large and varied workload

· Natural team player, comfortable working as part of a small team, intuitive communicator

· Good drafting skills, able to convey legal/technical requirements in summarised form

· Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, ability to learn IT systems/software used to facilitate the department’s work