The Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (“ICDM”) announced its progress and shared key organisational milestones for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 (FY2022), and for the period from January to April 2023 at their recent Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Since inception in 2018, ICDM has seen sustained high double-digit organisational growth and continued to deliver impact through its platform and initiatives.

In their efforts to professionalise boards and directors in Malaysia, the growth is indicative of the increasing awareness and acceptance of the need for senior leadership to build capacity in evolving and developmental areas to better guide companies and businesses. Notably, the key growth areas are as follows:

Membership: Individual membership has increased to 1,168 (25% higher compared to the preceding reporting period) whilst corporate membership has surged to 86 (30% increase from the preceding reporting period). Overall, the membership base has grown 13-fold and 8-fold respectively for individual and corporate membership, compared to when ICDM concluded its first year performance in 2018. To contextualise, ICDM’s annual membership growth rate amongst other institutes of directors (IoD) in the region is second only to Australia and New Zealand.

Director education programmes: Facilitated 112 programmes compared to 93 programmes in the previous reporting period, benefitting 6,705 participants which is 39% higher (from 4,830). In total, ICDM has facilitated 305 programmes to date and benefited 18,309 directors and participants.

Board & Directors Effectiveness Evaluation (BDEE): Completed 20 external board and directors board evaluations, a 33% rise from the previous reporting period. To date, ICDM has conducted 37 BDEEs for companies and boards, of which 76% are public listed boards.

Independent director sourcing requests and placements: In this reporting period, there has been a rise of 28% to 87 independent director sourcing requests and a total of 37 successful board placements by ICDM. Over this period since ICDM’s establishment, the total success rate in placing ICDM Members on boards is at 58, compared to 2 in 2018.

ICDM Chairman Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar emphasised ICDM’s unwavering efforts in professionalising directors, ensuring their capacity to uphold best practices in governance, shifting mindsets towards the continuing acquisition of knowledge and competencies for improved performance, proficiency and effectiveness.

She said, “The mandate for board directors as leaders is clear – navigate this complex environment, deliver positive impact, optimise opportunities, promote equity, and foster innovation. At ICDM, we recognise the challenges and complexity of the board’s multi-faceted role and the need for a proactive approach towards tackling change and problem-solving.”

ICDM President & Chief Executive Officer Michele Kythe Lim said, “As the only national IoD and a membership-based organisation, we remain true and committed to our mandate to build capable, purpose-driven board and directors, with the goal of elevating business performance and achieving good corporate governance. We have focused efforts to institutionalise and build responsible, proactive
boards, by creating pathways and the right network for board directors to transition to a sustainable and future-focused leadership. At the same time, we want to catalyse the mindset shift to self-regulation at the board level. One thing is clear: the mindset shift is happening, and we see this demonstrated across the adoption of our initiatives and programmes, such as the placement of 33 women directors on boards in the reporting period alone; placement of first-time directors on the board of public listed companies (PLC), as well as the shift in board priorities and growing interest in areas that we considered ‘new’, from Sustainability or Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), innovation and digitalisation, talent, culture, cybersecurity, climate risks, amongst others. Today, ICDM is at a crossroads of our
journey as an IoD, and as we enter the next phase of our growth, we will continue to prioritise and focus our efforts to catalyse performance and excellence in companies & businesses through a minimum benchmark of standards, as well as create positive community impact through high-performing boards, directors and leaders.”