Community Profile

Bob Garratt, Professor Extraordinaire; Chairman Centre For Corporate Governance in Africa, University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa
Bob Garratt
Professor Extraordinaire; Chairman Centre For Corporate Governance in Africa
University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa

Bob is a company director, consultant, and academic working on corporate governance; board and director evaluation and performance, organisational change and strategic thinking issues. He is based in London and consults on five of the six continents. His consulting experience of board and business issues covers organisations from large corporates to family businesses, state-owned enterprises, professional practices, not-for-profits, central governments and local communities.

He helped form the China-EEC Management Programme in Beijing in 1983 (the first Chinese MBA programme), and the ASEAN-EU Management Centre in Brunei Darussalam in 1992. He has worked with many financial services institutions including The International Monetary Fund, Washington, the Public Investment Corporation, South Africa, and for the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on corporate governance issues for Banking Supervisors and Inspectors. He has made recent lecture tours at Government level on corporate governance and board performance issues to India, South Africa and Australia. He is a Founder Member of The Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance. He leads the Developing Strategic Thought programmes, is on the Board of Examiners and is a time-expired External Examiner of the Institute of Directors, London.

He is a consultant on board evaluation and development issues, and Advisor to KPMG LLP on Board effectiveness, a Visiting Professor at the Cass Business School, City University, London where his work spans the Centres for Research in Corporate Governance, Leadership, Learning and Change, and Health Management. He is Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Stellenbosch Business School South Africa, and Chairman of its new Unit for Corporate Governance in Africa. He was previously a Visiting Professor at The Tanaka Management School, Imperial College, London, responsible for the board development of the faculty ‘spin out’ companies; and was Senior Associate, The Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge. He is Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants and a Freeman of The City of London. He is Past Chairman of the Association for Management Education and Development, and led the management education side of both the Faculty of Management, Ulster College, Belfast, and The Architectural Association School, London.

In 2002, he won the Shareholder Value corporate governance essay prize sponsored by the European Business Forum and PwC/IBM; and in 2004, The Academy of Corporate Governance, Hyderabad, Writing Excellence prize. His books include: The Fish Rots From The Head: The Crisis in our Boardrooms (1996 and 2003); Developing Strategic Thought (ed) (1994 and 2003); The Learning Organisation: Developing Democracy At Work (2000); and Thin On Top: Why Corporate Governance Matters (2003). He is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Business Studies; Development and Learning in Organisations; Action Learning; and Organisations and People.