Unilever 2015 Annual Report Download - page 53

ATTENDANE
The followng table shows the attendance of Drectors at Board
meetngs n 2015 If Drectors are unable to attend a Board meetng
they have the opportunty beforehand to dscuss any agenda tems
wth the harman Attendance s expressed as the number of
meetngs attended out of the number elgble to be attended
Man Board
Mchael Treschow(a) 8 / 8
Ann Fudge(b) 8 / 8
Paul Polman(c) 8 / 8
Jean-Marc Hut(d) 5 / 6
Nls Andersen(e) 4 / 4
Laura ha 6 / 8
Vttoro olao(f) 3 / 4
Louse Fresco 8 / 8
Byron rote(g) 4 / 4
Judth Hartmann(e) 4 / 4
Mary Ma 7 / 8
Hxona Nyasulu 7 / 8
Sr Malcolm Rfknd(g) 2 / 4
John Rshton 7 / 8
Feke Sbesma 7 / 8
Kees Storm(g) 3 / 4
Paul Walsh(g) 4 / 4
(a) harman
(b) Vce-harman/Senor Independent Drector wth effect from 30 Aprl 2015
(c) Executve Drector
(d) Executve Drector untl hs resgnaton wth effect from 1 October 2015
(e) Apponted to the Boards wth effect from 30 Aprl 2015
(f) Apponted to the Boards wth effect from 1 July 2015
(g) Retred from the Boards on 30 Aprl 2015
NONEXEUTIVE DIRETOR MEETINS
The Non-Executve Drectors meet as a group, wthout the
Executve Drectors present, to consder specfc agenda tems
set by them, usually four or fve tmes a year In 2015 they met sx
tmes The harman, or n hs absence the Vce-harman and
Senor Independent Drector, chars such meetngs
BOARD EVALUATION
Each year the Boards formally assess ther own performance wth
the am of helpng to mprove the effectveness of both the Boards
and the ommttees and at least once every three years an
ndependent thrd party facltates the evaluaton The last external
evaluaton was performed n 2014 The evaluaton conssts of
ndvdual ntervews wth the Drectors by the harman and, when
relevant, by the external evaluator These ntervews complement
our annual process of completon by all Drectors of three
confdental onlne evaluaton questonnares on our Boards, EO
and harman In ths year’s evaluaton the Board questonnare
was smplfed and shortened and nvted comments on a number
of key areas ncludng Board responsblty, operatons,
effectveness, tranng and knowledge The harman’s Statement
on page 4 descrbes the key actons agreed by the Boards
followng that evaluaton
In addton to the evaluaton of the Boards’ effectveness, each year
the harman conducts a process of evaluatng the performance
and contrbuton of each Drector whch ncludes a one-to-one
performance and feedback dscusson wth each Drector The
evaluaton of the performance of the harman s led by the
Vce-harman and Senor Independent Drector and the harman
leads the evaluaton of the EO, both usng bespoke questonnares
ommttees of the Boards evaluate themselves annually under
supervson of ther respectve harmen takng nto account the
vews of respectve ommttee members and the Boards The key
actons agreed by each ommttee n ths year’s evaluaton can be
found n each ommttee Report
APPOINTMENT
In seekng to ensure that NV and PL have the same Drectors,
the Artcles of Assocaton of NV and PL contan provsons whch
are desgned to ensure that both NV and PL shareholders are
presented wth the same canddates for electon as Drectors
Anyone beng elected as a Drector of NV must also be elected as
a Drector of PL and vce versa Therefore, f an ndvdual fals
to be elected to both companes he or she wll be unable to take hs
or her place on ether Board
The report of the Nomnatng and orporate overnance
ommttee (N) on pages 64 and 65 descrbes the work
of the N n Board appontments and recommendatons for
re-electon In addton, shareholders are able to nomnate
Drectors The procedure for shareholders to nomnate Drectors
s contaned wthn the document enttled ‘Appontment procedure
for NV and PL Drectors’ whch s avalable on our webste To do
so they must put a resoluton to both the NV and PL AMs n lne
wth local requrements Drectors are apponted by shareholders
by a smple maorty vote at each AM
wwwunlevercom/boardsofunlever
DIRETOR INDUTION AND TRAININ
All Drectors receve nducton on onng the Boards and a new, and
more comprehensve, nducton programme was put n place n
2015 The harman ensures that ongong tranng s provded for
Drectors by way of ste vsts, presentatons and crculated updates
at (and between) Board and Board ommttee meetngs on, among
other thngs, Unlever’s busness, envronmental, socal, corporate
governance, regulatory developments and nvestor relatons
matters Detals of the tranng provded to the Drectors n 2015
can be found n the harman’s Statement on page 4
INDEPENDENE AND ONFLITS
As the Non-Executve Drectors make up the ommttees of
the Boards, t s mportant that they can be consdered to be
ndependent Each year the Boards conduct a thorough revew
of the Non-Executve Drectors’, and ther related or connected
persons’, relevant relatonshps referencng the crtera set out
n ‘The overnance of Unlever’ whch s derved from the
relevant best practce gudelnes n the Netherlands, UK and US
The Boards currently consder all our Non-Executve Drectors
to be ndependent of Unlever
We attach specal mportance to avodng conflcts of nterest
between NV and PL and ther respectve Drectors The Boards
ensure that there are effectve procedures n place to avod
conflcts of nterest by Board members If approprate,
authorsaton of stuatonal conflcts s gven by the Boards to the
relevant Drector The authorsaton ncludes condtons relatng to
keepng Unlever nformaton confdental and to the Drector’s
excluson from recevng and dscussng relevant nformaton at
Board meetngs Stuatonal conflcts are revewed annually by the
Boards as part of the determnaton of Drector ndependence In
between those revews Drectors have a duty to nform the Boards
of any relevant changes to the stuaton A Drector may not vote on,
or be counted n a quorum n relaton to, any resoluton of the
Boards n respect of any stuaton n whch he or she has a conflct
of nterest The procedures that Unlever has put n place to deal
wth conflcts of nterest operate effectvely
Unlever recognses the beneft to the ndvdual and the roup
of senor executves actng as drectors of other companes but,
to ensure outsde drectorshps of our Executve Drectors do
not nvolve an excessve commtment or conflct of nterest, the
number of outsde drectorshps of lsted companes s generally
lmted to one per Executve Drector and approval s requred from
the harman
46 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2015Governance
ORPORATE OVERNANE ONTINUED