Corporate Governance Framework

The Kersten Group believes that an effective governance is vital to sound management and its role is strategic, ensuring not only regulatory compliance but also the vitality of the business model, its vision and its ambitions. It is based on balancing entrepreneurship with risk and control management which means that the Kersten Group businesses and activities are organized for growth and long-term value creation for all stakeholders, while effectively keeping sight of and managing the risks that come with that growth.

The Corporate Governance Framework of the Kersten Group is comprised of the governance policies. These governance policies provide a backbone to a more transparent, accountable and secure governance of the Kersten Group. These existing corporate governance policies includes:

 

In addition to the governance policies, the Supervisory Board of C. Kersten en Co. N.V. has created the Audit Committee, the Governance Committee, and the Remuneration & Nomination Committee as oversight board.

In 2020 the governance policies were comprehensively reviewed and revised by the Board of Directors, the Governance Committee, the Legal & Corporate Governance Officer, and the Internal Audit Manager of C. Kersten en Co. N.V. The review is primarily performed to enhance the governance policies of the Kersten Group and to align our policies with the latest regulatory requirements and international best practices.

 

Corporate Governance Effectiveness Measures

As part of the measures to improve the effectiveness of the implemented corporate governance policies of the Kersten Group, the Code of Conduct and the Whistleblowing Policy and Procedure were fully rolled out and form part of the new employees introductory document to be signed-off. Since 2019, a quarterly reporting from the Operating Companies was required to emphasize the importance of these policies and to embed them operationally. From January 2020 on the Legal & Corporate Governance Officer of C. Kersten en Co. N.V. is responsible for the monitoring of the governance policies. The objective of the aforementioned monitoring process is to further improve the effectiveness of the corporate governance policies of the Kersten Group.