Who we are and what we do?
To provide leadership on director issues and promote excellence in governance to achieve a positive impact for the economy and society.
Since our early beginnings, we have developed as an organisation recognised for quality and professionalism. By 2017, we aim to be recognised as:
- A key influencer in the creation of world-leading governance laws and practices in Australia;
- A key player in achieving world-leading performance of Australian boards and directors, including the application of governance principles.
Our activities
The Australian Institute of Company Directors is an internationally-recognised, member-based, not-for-profit organisation for directors. Our principal activities include education, conducting professional development programs and events for boards and directors; producing publications on director and governance issues, and developing and promoting policies on issues of interest to directors.
Membership
We have more than 32,000 individual members, including more than 900 based outside Australia. Our members include directors from such diverse organisations as ASX-listed companies, government bodies, not-for-profit organisations, charities, family-owned/private companies and entrepreneurial ventures.
We are a national organisation with seven state and territory divisions. Our national Board, which consists of 12 directors, is our governing body. Our board is comprised of up to four national directors, including the chairman and seven division representatives. The division representatives on the board appoint the chairman and national directors after each annual general meeting. The chief executive officer may be appointed managing director by resolution of the board.
See our constitution (PDF) for our procedure for appointing directors.
We have a national office in Sydney, Australia, offices in all Australian states, the ACT and representation in Darwin. Members are served by their state division and a state manager, and that office reports to the national office on the effective running of the division.
Each division has a Council of up to 10 representatives, with up to six councillors elected by members from that state and up to four appointed by the Council.
Our national office is structured to support our state divisions. It delivers core education courses and events, develops policy on director issues, publishes Company Director magazine and good practice books for directors, and represents the views of members nationally.
In its supportive role, the national office is divided into five departments: Director and Board Development, Marketing, Policy, Communications, and Operations.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors celebrated its 21st birthday in 2011. The origins of the Australian Institute of Company Directors can be traced back to the United Kingdom’s Institute of Directors (IoD), formed by Royal Charter in 1906.
Branches of the IoD appeared in the Australian states in the 1960s. These branches were amalgamated in January 1971 under the Institute of Directors in Australia, an autonomous body affiliated with the IoD in the United Kingdom. The challenge of servicing state branches saw the emergence of the Company Directors Association of Australia in 1982. The two bodies merged on 1 January 1990 to form the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
International associations
We are a founding member of the Global Director Development Circle, a group now known as the Global Network of Directors’ Institutes (GNDI). Membership of GNDI provides us with a forum to demonstrate the leadership of Australian directors internationally, and to share expertise in corporate governance and professional director development. GNDI is comprised of membership organisations for directors from Australia, the UK, US, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brazil and South Africa.