Who are we and what do we do
Experience
ShedB Principal, Bruce Cowley, has 40 years experience as a corporate and governance lawyer and over 20 years experience chairing and sitting on Boards of both commercial organisations and not for profits, ranging from law firms to listed companies, superannuation funds and other financial institutions, universities, disability service providers, fundraising bodies and community organisations.
Services
Bruce's experience enables him to provide thoughtful advice about solving challenging governance problems, whether it its a short or longstanding disagreement on a board, how to address a difficult conflict of interest issue, chair or board member performance, disagreements between members of a joint venture board, issues in the relationship between the board and the CEO and governance challenges which emerge during the course of a merger or restructure.
We also support independent chairs and board members and those new to a chair, board or executive role with mentoring or coaching support although more often than not, the relationship evolves into a peer to peer relationship better enabling a constructive exchange of ideas and evaluation of available options.
Sometimes, in serious matters, a confidential investigation is required, and with 40 years' experience as a governance lawyer, Bruce is well able to assist.
Speaking and authorship
Bruce has written and spoken widely on matters related to corporate governance. In 2017 his text book, co-authored with Stephen Knight, entitled Duties of Board and Committee Members, was published by Thompson Reuters. The text-book discusses the duties of directors and board members of a range of different kinds of corporations, from ASX listed and APRA regulated entities, through statutory bodies to cooperatives and incorporated associations.
Bruce is also the author a series of publications entitled Protecting Your Position which summarise commonwealth, state and territory laws which impose duties and liabilities on directors and board members.