Corporate Governance
Chairman, Chief Executive and Senior Independent Director
The roles of the Chairman and the Chief Executive are separate and have been defined and approved by the Board. The Chairman's main responsibility is the leadership and management of the Board and its governance. The Chief Executive is responsible for the leadership and day-to-day management of the Company and the execution of strategy as approved by the Board.
During the year, the Chairman's main positions outside the Company were as Senior Non-executive Director of the Court of the Bank of England, Deputy Chairman of Port and Free World Zone (Dubai) and a Non-executive Director of Carnival plc and Carnival Corporation, Inc. The Chairman's contractual commitment to National Grid is two days per week, but in practice this is often exceeded.
Following the announcement of Roger Urwin's retirement, a rigorous succession process was put in place, led by the Chairman and Non-executive Directors, to identify a new Chief Executive. This led to the appointment of Steve Holliday as Deputy Chief Executive with effect from 1 April 2006, enabling a progressive and smooth handover of responsibilities in accordance with a transition plan approved by the Chairman and Non-executive Directors.
The Senior Independent Director is Ken Harvey, who has held the role since 21 October 2004. His responsibilities include leading the Non-executive Directors' annual consideration of the Chairman's performance. He is also available to shareholders in the event they feel it inappropriate to communicate via the Chairman, the Chief Executive or the Finance Director, but we received no such requests from shareholders during the year.