Board Academy Certification Course

We believe there are three essentially characteristics that make a supervisory or advisory board in a company successful: qualifications, integrity and social responsibility.

01

About us

The Board Academy was founded by Guido Happe, Managing Director of Board Partners GmbH, in 2010. His goal was and still is making a contribution to the permanent professionalisation of committee work and enabling the transfer of knowledge. The quality of board work depends on proper mandating, the indispensable understanding of the environment, and the ability to ask the right questions.

02

Mission

Underlying the Board Academy is our mission and experience that, in essence, a successful supervisory or advisory board is distinguished by the following three characteristics: professional qualification, integrity and social responsibility.

03

Participants

We address supervisory boards on the employer as well as the employee side as much as advisory boards, managing directors and members of audit committees. 

04

Contents

The Board Academy programme consists of the following modules:

  • Human resources, communication and organisation
  • Reporting, accounting and controlling
  • Risk & compliance
  • Legal
  • Corporate finance, M&As, restructuring
  • Strategy, innovation management, digitalization

Curriculum

The curriculum comprises 6 x 2 days with group work, business case work, lectures, checklists, etc. and a final examination for the certificate “Certified Supervisory and Advisory Board Member”.

The certificate is issued jointly by PwC, Board Partners, BeitenBurkhardt, Commerzbank and Huckberg. After completion of each module, the participant receives all the presentations and documents needed to deepen his knowledge and to prepare for the final examination.

Human Resources/ Organisation / Communication

 

 

Like all the other modules, the Human Resources/Organisation/Communication module is both a basis and a completion course. It covers not merely how to become a member of an advisory or supervisory board, but the challenges, expectations and complexities of HR topics and a view into the organisation for committee members. The competence management needed by management boards and managing directors is deepened and the dynamics of the management of culture and change are put in the spotlight. A further topic is the staffing and appointment of boards and managing directors. Performance reviews and compensation topics conclude an HR perspective on control and incentive schemes. The HR module is an active mixture of lectures and group work with the presentation of results and discussion.

 

Facilitator HR

Guido Happe

Board Partners

Reporting / Controlling

 

The point of departure of the balancing/controlling module is the clarification of the principles and legal framework conditions of the monitoring function of the supervisory board and the advisory board, with particular attention to latest legal developments, especially in the field of accounting. The module answers the question what instruments the supervisory board can use to gather information for fulfilling its duty of supervision. The principles of internal accounting/controlling are presented, as well as a comprehensive overview of the fundamental standards and rules of external reporting, with the focus on international accounting and substantive changes introduced into national commercial law.

 

Facilitator Reporting

Marco See

PwC

Risk & Compliance

 

 The Risk & Compliance module enables members of supervisory boards and of advisory boards to fulfil the shoulder their responsibilities as regards risk and compliance. To this end, notions and legal basics regarding the tasks and the responsibility of the legal representatives and supervisory organs are explained. Besides highlighting specific practical aspects of liability, auditing standards are presented. Best practices for risk recognition and assessment as well as for designing holistically integrated risk management systems are discussed. The module concludes with practical hints to embed the topics of risk & compliance in supervisory and advisory meetings.

 

Facilitators Risk & Compliance

Roland Startz

Beiten Burkhardt

Marco See

PwC

Legal

 

 

The Legal module explains the legal principles of the supervisory and advisory activities. Cooperation with the management board, appointment, dismissal of board members, requirements on their compensation as well as liability of the supervisory board are emphasized. Requirements under capital market law, ad hoc duty, problems of corporate co-determination as well as the particular position of the supervisory board in the group and its responsibility in crisis and insolvency situations are also pointed out, as are the particulars of the supervisory board in the GmbH or comparable committees.

 

Facilitator Legal

Roland Startz

Beiten Burkhardt

Corporate Finance /
M&A / Restructuring

 

 

With the Corporate Finance, M&A and Restructuring module, acting or designated members of the supervisory or advisory board of a company are educated about M&As, equity, loans and bonds. Practitioners with many years of experience in various finance units present practically relevant solutions and structures as well as their interactions in the business economics and legal contexts. The study material is rounded off with case studies. After successful completion of this module, the members of the supervisory or advisory board know all practically relevant structures/instruments in the fields of capital markets, financing and M&As and are able to put the right questions to management as regards both growth projects and financial restructuring.

 

Facilitator Finance

Rüdiger Theiselmann

Huckberg

Strategy / Innovation Management / Digitisation

 

 

The Strategy, Innovation Management and Digitisation module helps reflect the national and international development and planning of the company. Participants are enabled to make and follow up the decisions that are necessary from the perspectives of the supervisory and advisory boards when business strategies are developed and implemented.

In the process, dimensions and variants of the strategies are highlighted, and the understanding of the strategy is also discussed from the viewpoint of risk. Participants acquire insight into the strategic committee and the possibilities and responsibilities of the strategic possibilities as advisory and supervisory boards. The question of the body as a strategy guardian is dealt with, as are opportunities, risks and the fields of IT and IT communication. Experiences from corporate practice, consulting and science are also drawn upon.

 

Facilitator Strategie

Guido Happe

Board Partners

Address

Board Partners GmbH
Erika-Mann-Str. 21, D-80636 Munich

Contact Us

+49 (0)89 51 55 54 43
info (at) board-academy.com

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