Catching up with Sinead Murray, Managing Director of Redwood Governance Services in Ireland

You have extensive experience in financial services - can you give us an overview of your career?

I have spent 12 years in tax and advisory teams in ‘Big 4’ accountancy practices and six years in industry. I trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in Dublin and transferred to KPMG Guernsey in 2009 before returning to Ireland in November 2022.

I’ve worked with leading asset managers, banks, insurance companies and other corporates and privately-owned structures with operations or interests in the Channel Islands, Ireland, the UK and elsewhere.

Most recently I was Executive Director for a South African private equity fund manager with its ManCo in Guernsey and sat on the boards of a number of investment entities and GPs.

For the past 18 months, I have been involved with Redwood working on various internal projects. We are on a very exciting growth journey, and I am now overseeing the set-up of Redwood in Ireland, which is a very promising market.

What is your specific area of expertise? 

My area of expertise is understanding what good and suitable governance practices look like for different organisations and being able to design and help with implementation in a real-life way.

Key to this is making sure things are practical and can be put in place, followed and easily operated by the relevant people and teams. A really crucial part of this is bringing in useful and practical standardisation of documentation and processes to high-quality levels consistently across structures.

Having spent much of my career dealing with tax investigations and disputes, I have a great respect for and perspective on good corporate governance. I enjoy reviewing a structure and identifying the areas that can be easily addressed to strengthen the ability to withstand potential scrutiny, either from an authority or in the event of a sale.

What appealed to you most about joining Redwood?

The fact that in a relatively crowded market where there are numerous ‘consultancies’ offering various outsourced services, Redwood has stuck to its aim and promise of delivering high quality services at sensible price points.

Redwood Ireland can fulfil the statutory Company Secretary function where required but will more typically assist with the broader corporate governance areas, including preparing board of directors and committee charters, mandates and terms of reference to clarify the role, function, substance and expected conduct and output of boards and committees.

With the right wind behind us, Redwood is well-positioned to offer something a little different to what has previously existed in the Irish market in the corporate governance space.  

What is the best part of the job?

Working with a business that has the right attitude to corporate governance. Sometimes in advance of a sale or other change in an organisation, we will get the opportunity to review a structure holistically and give feedback, design and implement changes to improve the governance framework, policies and processes.

Generally, when we have the assistance and buy-in of senior management and staff, we work to support the relevant people and teams to implement effective and efficient processes. 

Our team has worked on many projects where correctly designed and implemented standardisation of company secretarial and broader corporate governance policies and procedures improve output quality. This ensures relevant stakeholders have accurate and complete information, in the correct format, when they require it and that’s what makes the job satisfying!

What will be your main focus for Redwood’s new Ireland office?

Spreading the word that Redwood has a novel offering in the governance space in Ireland, which is to offer top-quality input to organisations of every size at sensible price points.

Many businesses are experiencing resourcing, service and quality issues and don’t realise you can outsource corporate governance beyond a CSP or law firm. So, in the next five years, I will focus on educating and spreading the word that corporate governance can be a standalone outsourced service.

Redwood also has a fantastic recruitment history - many of the current staff have been in place since the beginning, which says a lot. We will build a team of people looking to move on to the next stage in their careers who have ideas and want to be involved in the strategic direction of a new Irish corporate governance business.