Who we are and what we do?
We are Australia’s pre-eminent organisation for directors, dedicated to making a difference in the quality of governance and directorship.
Providing leadership on director issues and promoting 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. Our goals include:
- to be the centre for governance and directors
- to be the voice of governance and directorship in Australia.
We continue to be the leading provider of director education and development in Australia. We strive to lead and demonstrate the value of excellence in governance and to enrich the practice of organisational governance.
We are a national organisation with 7 state divisions each of which is represented on a National Board. Overall governance is by the National Board that consists of 12 directors.
There are 4 national directors, one of whom is the chairman, and 7 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, with offices in all Australian states and in the ACT. Members are served by their state division and a state division 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 elected by members from that state.
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 texts 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 beginnings 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.