The ILA is a multi-industry association that aims to promote good corporate governance in the grand duchy. After working at Luxembourg for Finance as deputy CEO, and, before that, at the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), Delano’s first question to was: why did he come to the ILA?
“I’ve been interested in corporate governance for a long time,” von Restorff replied. “The lasting success of an organisation stands and falls with good governance. And ILA stands for corporate governance like no other institution in Luxembourg. They’re fostering corporate governance in Luxembourg and beyond.”
The association, for example, offers trainings and certifications for people involved with corporate governance, including executive directors, non-executive directors, corporate secretaries and other professionals related to board activities. Their newest training package, which targets fund directors, started last year.
“We also support them in their continuous professional development,” said von Restorff. “At every step of their career, ILA is there to support them, with training, by providing a platform for them to exchange ideas, by providing thought leadership, by providing them with a platform to network and to exchange.”
A more diverse board is better for an organisation
The association, which now has nearly 3,000 members, has 24 working groups, almost 200 certified directors and more than 90 corporate secretaries. “The success has been there,” he said. Now the focus is on making the ILA grow sustainably.
My first priority is to listen to the members.
“We are also looking for recognition of what we call corporate governance officer.” Already present in the US and Great Britain, it’s a role that involves implementing the decisions taken by the board and providing feedback to the board itself.
An organisation has to adapt to new challenges that arise, from climate change to sustainability regulations, he added. Directors have to acknowledge these new regulations, “and they have to translate these new requirements--but also opportunities--into reality,” said von Restorff. “The more diverse your board is--in terms of not only gender, but in terms of origin, in terms of experience and expertise--the better for an organisation.”
Priorities for the year(s) to come
“My role is to help guide ILA on this path to sustainable growth,” noted von Restorff. “So I think my first priority is to listen to the members and to understand what the needs are today, but also what kind of needs will be occurring tomorrow.”
The ILA is currently working on digitalising its processes in order to increase its efficiency, explained von Restorff, and it’s one of the association’s priorities. It’s “quite an ambitious project, which involves a lot of resources, but also a change in procedures.” Digitalisation covers anything that can be done to “optimise” processes, from the website’s content management system to managing member relationships to tools for reporting.
Another priority is the “ongoing business of protecting the interest of ILA members.” The organisation has seen a lot of growth in the last couple of years, and “this is something that you have to adapt to as an organisation.” The challenge will be to identify member needs and then adapt to be ready to deliver the services they will need.
Most looking forward to?
The ILA’s new CEO mentioned three things that he’s excited about. The first is to better position the association in the Luxembourg landscape of corporate governance. The second is to develop relationships with partners--other associations, regulators or public authorities, amongst others.
And finally, “I’m looking forward to work with my team, because this team has achieved enormously in the past” and it “has a lot of potential,” concluded von Restorff. “I’m looking forward to being part of this team.”
This interview was published for the Delano Finance newsletter, the weekly source for financial news in Luxembourg. .