Experian 2012 Annual Report Download - page 5

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Governance Financial statementsBusiness reviewBusiness overview
lasting legacy for Experian. Paul was always
a generous mentor to his team and, in
liaison with his family, we are establishing an
employee scholarship award in his name. He
is missed by everyone who knew him.
Strengthening our Board
Since the year-end, Brian Cassin has joined
Experian as our new Chief Financial Officer.
Brian was previously with Greenhill & Co,
the global investment banking firm and
has 20 years’ experience in the corporate
financial advisory sector. Brian was already
well known to us as a strategic advisor and
I am confident that he will make a great
contribution to Experian in the years ahead.
I am also pleased to tell you that the Board
and its committees have been further
strengthened by the appointment of Deirdre
Mahlan and George Rose as non-executive
directors from September 2012. Both have
extensive boardroom experience and will
bring a wealth of management and financial
expertise to Experian. I believe they have the
personal qualities and experience that are
important to us in continuing to create value
for our shareholders.
In order to provide continuity following
Paul Brooks’ death, David Tyler has kindly
agreed to remain on the Board until
31 December 2012, when he will retire.
David played a key role in the successful
demerger of Experian in 2006 as the finance
director of our former parent company
and we are very grateful to him for his wise
counsel and support since then.
Recognising our responsibilities
With growth comes an even greater
awareness of our wider social, ethical and
environmental responsibilities and we have
made good progress again on a number
of fronts. The community programme
continues to grow and all our regions now
have employees engaged in raising funds
and giving their time. Volunteering overall,
including time outside of normal working
hours spent on Experian projects, was up by
almost 3,500 hours. Environmentally we have
exceeded our three-year target, reducing
our energy from utilities (as a proportion of
revenue) by 21%, while our ethical progress
has been typified by achievements such
as the successful roll out of our new global
code of conduct.
Our employees continue to astound us
by the strength of their commitment to
volunteering and fundraising for all manner
of good causes. And while we remain
focused on financial education and support
for new entrepreneurs, our people are
also deeply connected to the issues of
importance within their local communities.
We are especially mindful of the
challenges that communities face in our
emerging markets and this year our senior
management conference takes place in
Mumbai where our leaders will see and
experience a range of local social issues.
We want to use this to give them a greater
awareness of the wider social context for our
business and its continued growth.
Listening to and taking account of the views
of stakeholders underpins all our actions
and we have recently embarked upon a
comprehensive stakeholder engagement
project, involving shareholders, clients,
suppliers, employees and our communities.
You can read about this and about our
broader progress in Experian’s latest
corporate responsibility report at
www.experianplc.com/crreport.
A business in excellent shape
Experian has come a long way in less than
six years as a public company and this last
year has again combined strong financial
performance with real strategic progress.
There’s no doubt that the business is in
excellent shape today with a first class
management team and a colossal sense
of purpose. I want to thank everyone at
Experian for all their hard work and to
congratulate them on an outstanding
achievement.
Constant product innovation underpins all
our activities, with over 10% of our revenue
generated from products developed in just
the past five years. We’ve been investing in
new data sources around the globe and in a
major new Decision Analytics product suite,
PowerCurve, which saw the successful
launch of the first phase last September. Our
new Business IQ product in North America
is also transforming the way we deliver
business information to clients and we’re
now set to introduce it to the UK.
Engaging our workforce
Experian’s success owes a great deal
to the outstanding efforts of a very
committed workforce, which is why
the Group’s ability to attract and inspire
talented people has always been a priority
for us. Since the introduction of our annual
Global People Survey in 2007, Experian’s
employee engagement scores have
steadily improved and we are now intent
on closing the remaining gap with global
high-performing organisations.
A major Group-wide initiative is underway,
led by our CEO, Don Robert, to unite our
people around a common understanding
of what makes Experian special and to
ensure that these defining characteristics
help shape every aspect of how we work
together across the world. We’ve called it
the Heart of Experian and are using it to
strengthen the qualities that have made us
who we are, while continuing to embrace
the diversity that is the hallmark of any
successful global business.
Paul Brooks
It was with the greatest sadness that we
learnt of the death in January of Paul
Brooks, our Chief Financial Officer. Paul was
an immensely talented and inspirational
leader, who played a central role in building
the Group we are today. He was admired
both inside and outside the Group as an
exceptionally able CFO and leaves behind
a very strong finance team that will be a
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