Executive Director, Associate Corporate Secretary (Hiring Immediately)

About CLS:

CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilized by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars’ worth of currency flows through our systems each day.

Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardization for participants in many of the world’s most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use.

CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle – whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market.

Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values underpin everything that we do at CLS and define our working environment:

• Pivotal purpose
• Trusted guardian
• Targeted innovation
• Facilitate connections
• Delivering excellence
• Inclusive culture

What you will be doing:

• With oversight from the Corporate Secretary, lead the day-to-day operations of the corporate secretarial function at CLS.
• Oversee governance support for the Board and its Committees, including agendas, materials, resolutions, minutes and governance records.
• Ensure governance processes are consistent, robust and regulator-ready, reflecting CLS’s role as a systemically important Financial Market Utility.
• Act as a senior internal advisor to the Corporate Secretary, on corporate governance matters, fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest and entity governance matters.
• Own assigned governance documentation, including committee charters, governance policies, manuals and procedural standards.
• Oversee corporate maintenance and statutory compliance for CLS legal entities, including constitutional documents, filings and required registrations with the US and the UK.
• Lead governance-related risk and control activities within the Chairs’ Office, including ownership of relevant RCSAs.
• Coordinate governance-related responses to internal audit, regulators, and external auditors.
• Develop, and set quality standards for corporate secretarial and committee support staff.
• Manage director compensation.
• Prepare director conflicts of interest reviews.
• Oversee divisional policies and procedures.
• Partner closely with Legal, Risk, Compliance, Finance and Internal Audit to ensure governance practices align with CLS’s risk management and control framework.

What we’re looking for:

• Extensive experience (10 yrs +) in corporate governance, board operations or corporate secretarial functions within a regulated or systemically important financial services environment.
• Strong understanding of governance expectations applicable to a regulated entity.
• Demonstrated experience supporting Boards and Committees at a senior level
• Exceptional drafting, editorial, and quality control skills for board level documentation.
• Proven ability to exercise sound judgment and discretion when handling high confidential information.
• Strong internal partnership skills, with the ability to influence across senior stakeholders.
• Experience leading and developing teams and setting high standards for governance execution.
• Comfortable operating with autonomy in a high stake, deadline-driven environment.
• Strong familiarity with governance filing requirements in the US and the UK
• International travel to quarterly in person board\committee meetings is required.

Professional qualifications / certifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Advanced degree (JD, MBA, Chartered Secretary Qualification (UK) or equivalent) strongly preferred.
• Professional governance qualification (e.g. CGI (UK), or CCGP (US) highly desirable

Our commitment to employees:

At CLS, we celebrate inclusion and consider this to be one of our strongest assets. We are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone feels comfortable to be who they are, and inclusion is valued. All employees have access to our inclusive benefits, including:

• Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 ‘life days’ (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.
• 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.
• Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.
• Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.
• Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.
• Employee Networks (including our Women’s Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about inclusivity.
• Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don’t.
• Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.
• Monthly ‘Heads Down Days’ with no meetings across the whole company.
• Generous non-contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.
• Private medical insurance and dental coverage.
• Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.
• Annual flu vaccinations.
• Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.
• Discounted Gym membership – Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.
• All employees have access to Discover – our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.
• Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.