Specialist Directors (CLARS Law and Business Seminar)
Don't miss this special Law and Business Seminar on Tuesday 14 October, as visiting scholar Professor Roy Shapira joins CLARS at the Melbourne office of Arnold Bloch Leibler.
What types of skill sets do directors need for corporate boards to be effective? In a recent project (with Duke University School of Law Professor Yaron Nili), we track a major shift in how boards think about expertise. Once dominated by generalist ex-CEOs, boards now increasingly feature “cyber directors,” “climate directors,” or “DEI directors.” By analysing companies' skill matrix disclosures, we assess the causes and consequences of this shift to "specialist directors," and suggest concrete implications for practitioners and policymakers.
The seminar will be commentated by Non-Executive Director, Janette Kendall, and chaired by CLARS Director, Professor Jennifer Hill.
Professor Roy Shapira
Roy Shapira is a visiting Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance, a Professor of Law at Reichman University, and a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute. He earned his doctoral and master degrees from Harvard Law School, and has taught at Harvard Economics Department and UC Berkeley Law. Roy's research focuses on reputational concerns, corporate governance, and corporate law litigation. He published a book with Cambridge University Press on the interactions between legal and reputational risks, and consulted corporate boards on the issue.
Janette Kendall
Janette Kendall is an experienced company director with over 25 years of board experience across ASX-listed, private and not-for-profit organisations spanning diverse industries including technology, media, retail, property, agriculture, gaming, sport and the arts.
Currently, Janette serves as Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed companies Vicinity Centres, Tabcorp and Bega, and privately owned Korda Mentha Property Funds. Her previous directorships include Costa Group, Nine Entertainment, Australian Venue Co, Visit Victoria, The Melbourne Football Club, Wellcom and Foodworks.
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Fellow of Monash University, Janette is also a member of Chief Executive Women. She is passionate about developing the next generation of diverse leaders, serving as a mentor with MentorWalks—a community of over 6,000 aspiring women across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Canada—and as an advisor to Youth Activating Youth, supporting multicultural Australian youth community engagement. She also Chairs a group of 12 CEO’s at The CEO Circle, along with mentoring individual CEO’s and Executives transitioning to Non-executive.
Professor Jennifer Hill
Professor Jennifer Hill is the Inaugural Bob Baxt AO Chair of Corporate and Commercial Law and Director of CLARS. Her scholarship on comparative corporate law and governance is widely cited in judicial decisions and academic literature in Australia, the United States, Europe and Asia.
Jennifer has received several ARC Discovery grants and held visiting teaching and research positions at leading international institutions, including Cambridge University; Cornell; NYU; University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. She is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Finance and EU Law (EUSFiL), University of Genoa, Italy. She is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.
Event Details
- Date:
- 14 October 2025 at 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm
- Venue:
- Arnold Bloch Leibler (333 Collins Street)
- Campus:
- Arnold Bloch Leibler Melbourne
- Categories:
- CLARS Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies
Description
Don't miss this special Law and Business Seminar on Tuesday 14 October, as visiting scholar Professor Roy Shapira joins CLARS at the Melbourne office of Arnold Bloch Leibler.
What types of skill sets do directors need for corporate boards to be effective? In a recent project (with Duke University School of Law Professor Yaron Nili), we track a major shift in how boards think about expertise. Once dominated by generalist ex-CEOs, boards now increasingly feature “cyber directors,” “climate directors,” or “DEI directors.” By analysing companies' skill matrix disclosures, we assess the causes and consequences of this shift to "specialist directors," and suggest concrete implications for practitioners and policymakers.
The seminar will be commentated by Non-Executive Director, Janette Kendall, and chaired by CLARS Director, Professor Jennifer Hill.
Professor Roy Shapira
Roy Shapira is a visiting Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance, a Professor of Law at Reichman University, and a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute. He earned his doctoral and master degrees from Harvard Law School, and has taught at Harvard Economics Department and UC Berkeley Law. Roy's research focuses on reputational concerns, corporate governance, and corporate law litigation. He published a book with Cambridge University Press on the interactions between legal and reputational risks, and consulted corporate boards on the issue.
Janette Kendall
Janette Kendall is an experienced company director with over 25 years of board experience across ASX-listed, private and not-for-profit organisations spanning diverse industries including technology, media, retail, property, agriculture, gaming, sport and the arts.
Currently, Janette serves as Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed companies Vicinity Centres, Tabcorp and Bega, and privately owned Korda Mentha Property Funds. Her previous directorships include Costa Group, Nine Entertainment, Australian Venue Co, Visit Victoria, The Melbourne Football Club, Wellcom and Foodworks.
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Fellow of Monash University, Janette is also a member of Chief Executive Women. She is passionate about developing the next generation of diverse leaders, serving as a mentor with MentorWalks—a community of over 6,000 aspiring women across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Canada—and as an advisor to Youth Activating Youth, supporting multicultural Australian youth community engagement. She also Chairs a group of 12 CEO’s at The CEO Circle, along with mentoring individual CEO’s and Executives transitioning to Non-executive.
Professor Jennifer Hill
Professor Jennifer Hill is the Inaugural Bob Baxt AO Chair of Corporate and Commercial Law and Director of CLARS. Her scholarship on comparative corporate law and governance is widely cited in judicial decisions and academic literature in Australia, the United States, Europe and Asia.
Jennifer has received several ARC Discovery grants and held visiting teaching and research positions at leading international institutions, including Cambridge University; Cornell; NYU; University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. She is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Finance and EU Law (EUSFiL), University of Genoa, Italy. She is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.
Event Contact
- Name
- clars@monash.edu
- Phone
- Organisation