Amrop Recruits 19 Independent Directors for Leading Listed Organizations in Chile

Under Chilean corporate governance law, directorships of listed companies must be renewed or replaced every three years. The country’s six Pension Funds companies, grouped into the Asociación AFP Chile, are no exception.

It is their task to nominate Independent Directors for the 19 listed organizations in which they have invested. Amongst these are Chile’s top 10 in terms of market capitalization: leading energy providers Endesa and Enersis, CMPC, specialists in forestry, pulp, paper and tissue, multinational retailer Cencosud, and Copec, Chile’s foremost privately-owned industrial group.

The nominating and hiring process must be conducted by a reputable external executive search firm, and the selection is restricted to the candidates proposed by the firm.

The process is also subject to public scrutiny, and this was particularly the case in 2015, according to Pulso, a leading business newspaper, reporting that the role of the directors chosen to protect pension funds would be more critical than ever, given ten years of cartels operating in a range of industrial sectors, from pharmaceuticals and shipping, to animal feed and tissue paper.

Amrop in Chile was assigned the mandate at the close of 2015, led by Max Vicuña, Managing Partner of Amrop MV Consulting in Santiago. Mr Vicuña previously served as Chairman for Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros (the Chilean Securities and Insurance Supervisor Body). He subsequently acted as representative of Prudential Securities in Chile.

When it came to the profile of the candidates, an increasing number of disqualifying factors had to be taken into account, compounded by the need to define a sharp profile for each of the 19 companies, each reconciling the candidates’ multiple conflicts of interest, and preserving complete impartiality from start to finish.

Secondly, there was a need to introduce new faces and raise the bar for gender diversity. As Max Vicuña told El Mercurio newspaper: “67% of the candidates had not previously been selected by the AFP. In addition, 19% were women; a significantly higher number compared to the current 6% of female directors in the IPSA.”

Despite the strict laws regarding the individual responsibilities of a board position, the interest of the 256 people identified by Amrop was striking, according to Max Vicuña: “almost every relevant figure was enthusiastic and willing to participate in the process.”

155 candidates were personally interviewed in depth at Amrop’s offices in Santiago, and Amrop presented 58 finalists for the 19 positions, all of which were filled.

Beginning in December 2015, the five month search process concluded after the annual shareholder meetings of each company in late April.