Independent Director

The seat
The Board seeks a financially rigorous independent director who can chair the Audit Committee without reducing the role to quarterly account approval. This is a manufacturing board with consumer-facing revenue, distributed inventory, product obligations and a working-capital cycle in which seemingly ordinary commercial choices can change reported earnings, cash conversion and risk. The incoming director must be able to connect factory economics, channel behaviour, warranty exposure, imported inputs and treasury decisions to the assertions ultimately placed before shareholders.
The Chair will set the quality threshold for information reaching the committee. Management packs should distinguish accounting compliance from economic reality: revenue should be examined alongside sell-through and returns; margin improvement alongside input substitution and quality cost; inventory reduction alongside service levels and obsolescence; and cash generation alongside supplier stretch and channel financing. The role calls for curiosity about the operating system beneath the ledger.
Matters requiring board-level judgement
Rebuild the Audit Committee calendar around the business's highest-risk accounting estimates, including inventory provisioning, warranty and service obligations, credit notes, slow-moving components, distributor receivables, impairment and capitalised development expenditure.
Require a single view of working capital that reconciles finance, sales, procurement and production data. Persistent differences between dispatch, acceptance, sell-through, returns and collections must become committee matters rather than spreadsheet explanations.
Challenge related-party and promoter-linked transactions for commercial substance, pricing evidence, approval discipline and cumulative exposure. The Chair must be prepared to request independent benchmarking where management papers are insufficient.
Oversee internal audit as a risk-led assurance function. Plant controls, procurement concentration, dealer incentives, scrap, quality escapes, service-part availability and access rights in financial systems should receive attention proportionate to consequence.
Test whether product-quality, safety, environmental and extended-producer obligations are represented faithfully in provisions, insurance, incident reporting and the risk register.
Establish direct, private lines with the statutory auditor, internal auditor, Chief Financial Officer and compliance officer. Differences in judgement, scope limitations, repeated control findings and management override indicators must reach the committee early.
Examine capital allocation through post-investment evidence: capacity additions, tooling, automation, brand expenditure and technology investments should each have an original case, accountable owner and after-the-fact return review.
Sponsor an integrated fraud-risk assessment covering procurement, channel schemes, service claims, vendor creation, employee conflicts, counterfeit risk and data manipulation at remote locations.
The first board cycle
During the first two quarters, the appointee will be expected to map the close process from operational source data to published result, identify the five estimates most capable of distorting performance, agree a remediation sequence for overdue controls, and reset the committee's private-session protocol. A useful first-year contribution would leave the Board with fewer reconciliations that depend on individual knowledge, a clearer view of cash quality and a more discriminating assurance plan.
Candidate evidence that will carry weight
Applicants should have held a CFO, finance-controller, audit-partner, enterprise-risk or business-leadership role in a listed or comparably governed manufacturing environment. The Board will look for direct experience of inventory, channel revenue, product provisioning, plant controls and capital projects—not merely familiarity with financial statements. Previous Audit Committee leadership is preferred. Candidates must be demonstrably independent, have a valid DIN before appointment, and satisfy Independent Directors' Databank and proficiency requirements applicable at the appointment date.
The expected commitment is six to eight Board and committee days annually, with additional preparation and availability around results, auditor discussions and material events. Plant visits are an essential part of the mandate.

Work arrangement
No