International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) Conference 2025

April Klein is the KPMG Faculty Fellow and Professor in the Accounting Department at the Stern School of Business at New York University, as well as the Director of the Vincent C. Ross Institute, a research centre at the Stern School. She also held the title of WBS Distinguished Research Environment Professor at the Warwick Business School from 2012 through 2024.

Her research focuses on:

• Corporate governance
• Hedge fund activism and trading
• Institutional ownership
• Information acquisition.

Her latest research addresses issues relating to ESG - including cybersecurity, board diversity, pay gaps, and financial institutions' influence on their investees' ESG policies.

April Klein received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business (now Booth) at the University of Chicago. She joined NYU's faculty in 1987. Here, she teaches classes in financial accounting, financial statement analysis, finance, and mergers and acquisitions at the Stern School of Business and at the NYU Law School.

She has also taught accounting, finance, and corporate governance classes at Columbia Law School, Baruch College, and Warwick Business School.

Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs.

His research examines how governance and accountability processes shape business sustainability and social entrepreneurship. He has written two prior award-winning books, including:

• Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism
• Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise.

The latter was a Financial Times Best Book of 2022.

Marquis is passionate about how academic research can help people around the world address some of the biggest crises of our day - including climate change, inequality, and discrimination. Before Cambridge, Marquis worked at Cornell University for 6 years, and Harvard University for 11 years.

He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan and previously worked for six years in the financial services industry - most recently as a Vice President at JP Morgan Chase.

Annet Aris is Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy at INSEAD and Academic Director of INSEAD’s Corporate Governance Centre. She joined INSEAD in 2003, her focus is on Digital transformation and disruption and its impact on society, industries and companies as well as on Corporate Governance. She was nominated in 2010 and 2011 for the best teacher award by the MBA students and received the Dean’s certificate for teaching excellence in the MBA programme in 2019, 2020, 2021,2022, 2023 and 2024.

Annet has also extensive experience as a non-executive board member of a variety publicly listed companies across Europe. Currently she is the vice-Chair of the Board of ASML NV (lithography systems for semi-conductor production), Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Randstad NV (HR services) and Board member at Jungheinrich AG (intralogistics). Annet ranks amongst most influential corporate directors in The Netherlands.

Annet is a Dutch native and received a MSc. from the University of Wageningen in 1984. After acceptance in McKinsey’s European INSEAD Fellow program, she completed her MBA with distinction in Fontainebleau in 1986. She worked for McKinsey from 1985 until 2003, at first in the Netherlands and in the UK and, since 1990, in Germany. She was elected partner in 1994 and co-led McKinsey’s German Media Practice from 1999-2003 working on a wide array of topics.

She is the author of a large number of articles and case studies on digital transformation. Together with Jacques Bughin, she wrote the book Managing Media Companies, Harnessing Creative Value. She recently published “Wegwijzer in het digitale doolhof” (“Pathway through the digital labyrinth” in Dutch).

Saleem Chowdhery is Director of Risk & Internal Audit at the Co-operative Group and a member of its Operating Board, where he leads the strategic oversight of enterprise risk, compliance, and internal audit across a complex, multi-sector organisation. His work focuses on embedding ethical governance, strengthening assurance frameworks, and enhancing organisational resilience.

Saleem has held several senior governance roles, including Non-Executive Director at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, where he contributed to board-level scrutiny and performance improvement in mental health services. He was previously a Board Director of The Co-op Foundation, supporting youth-led social action and community development initiatives. He currently serves as a trustee of Unity Medical Foundation, a charitable organisation focused on improving access to healthcare in underserved communities.

With a professional background as a Chartered Accountant that spans listed companies, private companies and not for profits, Saleem brings a practitioner perspective to the evolving role of boards in navigating uncertainty, stakeholder accountability, and inclusive governance.

The Co-operative Group, where he currently serves, is one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, owned by millions of members and guided by values of democracy, equity, and social responsibility. Its governance model offers a distinctive lens on stakeholder engagement and long-term value creation.

Rehman Minshall is the Group Finance Director at Manchester Airports Group. He was previously the Group Financial Controller at Asda, both under Walmart ownership and private equity ownership.

Prior to that, Rehman was a Director at KPMG, working with many UK and International, private and listed businesses.

Andrew Parry is a member of the Investment Committee at Trafalgar House Pension Trust. He was previously Head of Investments at JO Harbro Capital Management, as well as Head of Sustainable Investing at Newton Investment Management and Hermes Investment Management. He has acted as CEO, Independent Investment Advisor, CIO, and Non-Executive Director for various asset managers.

He has over 30-years of asset management experience with a focus on equities, investment strategy, business development, leadership and strategic client relationships. Over the last decade he has developed a growing interest and in-depth knowledge of the sustainable impact space.

Sacha Sadan is the Director of Sustainable Finance at the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), facilitating the UK financial regulator to embed ESG across the wide spectrum of regulatory activities and reporting to the CEO. He has been named a City Influencer by Financial News, as one of the biggest 25 names who have been instrumental in shaping the UK's financial services industry, and has also recently been appointed an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester. Previously Sacha was Director of Investment Stewardship (10 years) and on the board at LGIM, one of the world’s largest asset managers. Sacha had responsibility for investment stewardship, including environmental, social and governance (ESG). He was recognised in the Financial Times as one of ‘the 30 most influential people in the City of London’. Sacha was previously a UK equity portfolio manager at Gartmore. He was voted the top-rated Pan European fund manager in the Thomson Reuters Extel awards. He started his career at Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension fund. Sacha is a Fellow of CFA, CGI and a founding member of the UK Investor Forum.

Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL is an entrepreneur, investor, non-executive & thought leader with significant experience in founding, leading and exiting businesses to trade, private-equity and listed groups. He is a Non-Executive Board Member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), a Non-Executive Board Member of the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and also a Non-Executive Director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Shoosmiths LLP & Enspec Power. In his career, Vikas has also mentored and coach hundreds of entrepreneurs & leaders.

Vikas was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List and in 2021 became a Deputy Lieutenant of the Greater Manchester Lieutenancy. He holds an Honorary Professorship of Business at The Alliance Business School, University of Manchester (where he is a member of the advisory board) and is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) by the University of Salford in November, 2022.

Vikas is a Trustee of Chester Zoo and was Chair (from 2012-2024) of In Place of War (international peace building and entrepreneurship NGO with 100 grassroots community organisations with a collective reach of over 60m people in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America) and was a Trustee of Mustard Tree (helping tens of thousands impacted by poverty and marginalisation across Greater Manchester). Vikas is a mental health advocate. 

The ICGS/CGIR Junior Scholar Consortium and Paper Development Workshop (PDW) will be held on Friday October 17th, 2025, as part of the pre-conference programme.

The event, sponsored by Wiley, involves current and former CGIR Editors. The purpose of the consortium and PDW is to provide junior scholars with developmental feedback on their research papers in the field of corporate governance (CG). We're soliciting doctoral students and junior faculty members from any discipline and country to submit an original paper on CG.

The consortium and PDW are divided into two parts.

For the first part, CGIR Editors will meet individually with two authors at a mutually agreed time virtually or in person. The editors will provide feedback on how to improve their papers, so to increase the probability of acceptance by CGIR or other CG journals.

For the second part, the CGIR Editors-in-Chief and Senior Editors will present:

• The journal's mission and scope
• The key statistics on submissions and acceptance rate
• The editorial review process.

The second part will be held in person at The University of Manchester. This will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the editorial team. At the end of the PDW, there will be the possibility to have informal conversations with the Editors-in-Chief, Editors and Editorial Board Members of CGIR, to learn the nuances of successful publication strategies.

The International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) Travel Grant programme, in partnership with the Board Foundation, provides financial support to European doctoral students and early career researchers presenting their research or academic work during the annual ICGS Conference.

Read more about the programme and how to apply (PDF)

The International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) Travel Grant programme, in partnership with the Harold S. Geneen Charitable Trust, provides financial support to US doctoral students presenting their research or academic work during the annual ICGS Conference.

Read more about the programme and how to apply (PDF)

The International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) Emerging Economies Travel Grant programme provides financial support to early career researchers from Emerging Economies presenting their research or academic work during the annual ICGS Conference.

Read more about the programme and how to apply (PDF)

The price of attending the conference depends on whether you're a faculty member, practitioner, student or emeritus faculty, and when you register.

Registration deadlines

• Early registration: 30 August 2025
• Regular registration: 15 September 2025
• Late registration: 1 October 2025.

Fees

Register now

You can now register by clicking on this link: https://www.icgsociety.org/conference-fees. You need to be an ICGS member in good standing in order to register for the conference. If you are not currently an ICGS member please create an account on the ICGS website and pay your membership fees by visiting: https://www.icgsociety.org/membership-fees.

You'll need to book accommodation if you're planning to stay overnight in Manchester. There are lots of hotels near AMBS for a range of budgets. We recommend booking a hotel as soon as possible, to avoid disappointment.

Where to stay

Recommended hotel:

Hyatt Regency and Hyatt House Manchester - next to AMBS campus.

Hyatt Regency and Hyatt House Manchester is offering exclusive discounted rates for conference attendees. To get the discount, use the code 269489 - book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Book your room

Premium hotels:

Kimpton Clocktower Hotel - 0.6 miles from AMBS

The Midland - 0.9 miles from AMBS.

Mid-priced hotels:

• Maldron Hotel - 0.6 miles from AMBS
• INNSiDE Manchester - 0.8 miles from AMBS
• Townhouse Hotel Manchester - 0.9 miles from AMBS
• Motel One Manchester Piccadilly - 1 mile from AMBS.

Budget hotels:

• ibis Princess Street - 0.7 miles from AMBS
• Premier Inn Manchester City Centre (Princess Street) - 0.5 miles from AMBS.

Venue address

Alliance Manchester Business School
Booth Street West
Manchester
M15 6PB

You can travel to Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) by car, rail and on foot. You can also get to AMBS from Manchester Airport.

Travel by train

If your train gets in at Manchester Piccadilly railway station, this is about 1.5 miles from AMBS. Manchester Piccadilly is the main inter-city and cross-country train station. You can get a taxi to AMBS from outside the front and rear entrances to Manchester Piccadilly - but the rear entrance is slightly nearer to the university campus.

If your train gets in at Manchester Oxford Road railway station, this is less than 1 mile from AMBS.

You can book your train journey on the National Rail website.

Travel by car

If you're using a SatNav, you should use the postcode M13 9SS.

When you arrive at Alliance Manchester Business School, the Executive Education Centre and Hyatt Regency hotel are sign-posted. You can park at either:

• Car Park D, The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB
• NCP, Manchester Aquatic Centre, Booth Street East, Manchester, M13 9SS.

You will have to pay for parking - make sure you check overnight charges and parking restrictions.

Walk to AMBS

Manchester is a walkable city. You can get to AMBS from the two main train stations nearby:

• From Manchester Piccadilly in about 20 minutes - check the walking route from Manchester Piccadilly on Google maps.
• From Manchester Oxford Road in about 15 minutes - check the walking route from Manchester Oxford Road on Google maps.

Travel from Manchester Airport

The University of Manchester campus and AMBS are located about 10 miles from the airport, which is roughly 30 minutes by car. You can get to AMBS from the airport by taxi - this will cost around £25 depending on the time of day.

You can also travel by train - trains run frequently to Manchester Piccadilly station.

Check travel and directions on the Manchester Airport website.

Travel around Manchester

Greater Manchester has an extensive transport network making it easy to travel throughout the region. You can get around Greater Manchester by bus or tram - plan your journeys on the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) website.

Alliance Manchester Business School was established in 1965, making it one of the UK's first business schools. This year we celebrate our 60th anniversary.

The University of Manchester and Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) are distinctive in UK higher education as the first university and business school to make social responsibility a core strategic goal.

AMBS is one of the most prestigious business schools in Europe and the world; it has a triple accreditation from AACSB International, AMBA and EQUIS and it is one of the largest and oldest business schools in the UK. The business school has a large and multidisciplinary team of researchers interested in various topics related to corporate governance.

Our corporate governance researchers have backgrounds in accounting, finance, law, and management.

The Centre for the Analysis of Investment Risk (CAIR)

Based in AMBS, The Centre for the Analysis of Investment Risk (CAIR) provides research expertise on:

• Wide-ranging aspects of investment decision-making
• The governance of the ambiguities, risks, and uncertainty faced when making decisions.

Researchers based in the Centre have a particular interest in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and the significant role that different types of investors - from financial institutions to governments - can play in terms of addressing the following:

• Climate change risks
• Diversity on boards
• Modern slavery
• Executive pay.

Follow CAIR on LinkedIn

Your submission must build on your own previously unpublished and not-yet presented original research. You can submit either a full paper or a research proposal. Whichever option you choose, we're looking for research that will advance the field of corporate governance.

If you submit a full paper, it must not be longer than 60 double-spaced pages - this includes your abstract, references, tables, and figures.

If you submit a research proposal, it must not be longer than 10 single-spaced pages in length or 3,000 words. It must also include the following sections:

• Abstract - a 200 to 300 words description that summarises the overall study
• Proposal - a narrative description of the conceptual or empirical study
• Supporting materials - tables, figures, and references that support your proposal.

On your paper or proposal's title page, you should indicate which of the conference tracks best fits - you can read the different tracks below. The Track Chairs might shift your paper or proposal into another track to the one you submit if they think it fits better.

Each Paper Development Workshop (PDW) applicant can submit only one paper or proposal - this may or may not also be scheduled to be presented later in the conference. PDW applicants should indicate whether they plan on participating virtually or in person as part of their submission.

The window to submit your paper or proposal opened on 1 March 2025. You must submit your paper or proposal through our online conference management system.

You must submit your paper or proposal by 23:59 (UK time) on 30 June 2025.

You'll be contacted about your paper or proposal's inclusion in the conference programme by the end of July 2025. The best papers and proposals will be considered for the best conference paper award. The author(s) awarded with this will be recognised at the conference.

The theme for 2025 is 'Transformative Corporate Governance'. Corporate governance is studied by scholars from different fields such as accounting, finance, management, and law.

Scholars across these fields approach corporate governance through different theoretical lenses, including behavioural, economic, institutional, and political. They also employ different research methods, such as:

• Theory-based analysis
• Data-driven research
• Case studies
• Large-scale empirical studies.

We particularly welcome submissions that bring together these different approaches to corporate governance. We'd encourage papers that focus on how corporate governance can help companies manage external forces and transform both their organisational practices and their impact on business and society.

Topics of particular interest include, but aren't limited to, the following:

• Transformative Corporate Governance in an Evolving Legal, Economic and Political Environment
• Boards of Directors in Periods of Transformation: Skills, characteristics and outcomes
• Stakeholder Management and Engagement in Periods of Transformation
• Comparative Corporate Governance and Transformation
• Corporate Ownership and Transformation.

Since the overarching mission of ICGS is to bring together international governance scholars from multiple disciplines, original research in any area of corporate governance is welcomed.

This track invites scholars trying to span multiple theories or multiple disciplines to reconcile these different approaches and focus on the role of corporate governance in the context of helping companies to manage the external transformative forces and to transform their organisational practices and external business/societal environment.

Track chairs:

• Jie Chen - University of Leeds, UK
• Christine Shropshire - Arizona State University, USA

In this track, we explore the roles of boards of directors and top executives as well as other internal governance actors such as audit executives, general counsel, ESG officers and so on.

Track chairs:

• Jana Oehmichen - Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany
• Mariya Ivanova - NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Norway
• Taekjin Shin - San Diego State University, USA

This track explores the antecedents and outcomes of different types of owners. The track also encourages papers on non-traditional means of raising capital that give rise to ownership changes, such as:

• Private equity
• Other forms of alternative investment.

This track includes hedge-fund activists and other activist investors' influence on the firm and governance.

Track chairs:

• Sushil Sainani - University of Liverpool, UK
• Francesca Cuomo - University of East Anglia, UK
• Ilya Okhmatovskiy - Nova School of Business and Economics, Portugal

This track seeks to understand how firms' strategic decisions are influenced by external governance mechanisms. These include - but aren't limited to:

• Institutional rules
• Cultural norms
• The role of external governance intermediaries such as external auditors, financial analysts, rating agencies, and media.

Track chairs:

• Dimitrija Kalanoski - The University of Manchester, UK
• Xing Huan - EDHEC Business School, France

This track focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and stakeholders. Topics can be related to:

• How stakeholders play a governance role
• How governance actors shape firms' stakeholder relationships as well as stakeholder related disclosure.

ESG strategies as they relate to governance are encouraged.

Track chairs:

• Weiwen Li - Sun Yat-sen University, China
• Liang (Alice) Xu - The University of Manchester, UK

This track explores corporate governance in a (de)globalising economy. We want to discuss how transnational non-governmental institutions shape corporate governance across nations.

Furthermore, it's interesting and useful to compare governance practices across national economies. Multi-level governance interactions between multiple governance environments are also considered.

Track chairs:

• Toru Yoshikawa - Waseda University, Japan
• Canan Mutlu - Kennesaw State University, USA

This track invites doctoral students and junior faculty members from any discipline (for example, accounting, finance, organisation or strategy) and any country to submit an original paper or proposal on corporate governance.

Track chairs:

• Omrane Guedhami - University of South Carolina, USA
• Krista Lewellyn - Florida Southern University, USA