Board Governance Advisory
Your board sees the numbers. We help you see the risks behind them.
Meridian Governance gives boards a clear, independent read on the risks that don't show up in the management pack until it's too late: cyber, climate, AI, accountability, and conduct. Practical judgement, not theory.
A confidential conversation, not a sales pitch. Most boards know their first answer within 30 minutes.
What Meridian does
One independent view across the twelve risks that decide whether a board is doing its job.
We assess your governance the way a regulator, an acquirer, or a plaintiff's lawyer eventually will: across every domain at once, looking for the gaps between what the board believes and what the organisation can actually demonstrate.
Technology & cyber risk
Climate & sustainability disclosure
Financial accountability (FAR)
Privacy & data governance
AI & emerging technology
Enterprise risk management
Culture & conduct
Modern slavery & ESG disclosure
Financial reporting & audit
Board composition & renewal
Work health & safety governance
Financial crime governance
Why boards choose Meridian
Judgement you can act on, from someone who has sat where you sit.
01
Practical, not theoretical
You get findings tied to decisions, papers, and committee structures, not a framework lecture. Every observation comes with what to do about it.
02
The whole board, at once
Twelve domains assessed together, so you see how risks compound, not twelve separate reports that never reconcile.
03
Independent and direct
No audit cross-sell, no software to upsell. One advisor, telling you what a careful outsider sees, in plain English.
Meridian is led by Thomas Collins, GAICD, who spent 25 years running the high-stakes programs boards are accountable for, across energy and critical infrastructure, financial services, transport, and government. More about Thomas →
How it works
From first call to board-ready findings in weeks, not quarters.
1
A confidential conversation
Thirty structured minutes to understand your board, your sector, and the risks keeping you up at night. No charge, no obligation. The agenda is set out below.
2
The Board Health Check
A structured review across all twelve domains, drawing on board papers, interviews, and benchmarks for your sector.
3
Findings the board can use
A clear report and a board-room conversation: where you're strong, where you're exposed, and the few moves that matter most.
4
A 90-day path forward
Optional ongoing support to close the gaps, with priorities sequenced so the board can show real progress within a quarter.
Inside the 30 minutes
A diagnostic, not a sales call.
The conversation runs in four short movements. You leave with at least one governance blind spot named, whether or not we work together.
1
Context (5 min).
Your board, sector, tenure, and what prompted the call.
2
Surfacing risk (10 min).
The real questions, across the domains your board owns.
3
Reflecting back (8 min).
One or two exposures you may not have framed yet.
4
Next step (7 min).
Whether a Board Health Check fits. No pressure either way.
Questions we'll explore
Which of the twelve domains does your board spend the least time on, and why?
When did your board last test its assumptions about cyber or OT risk, rather than just receive a report on it?
If a regulator walked in tomorrow on FAR, privacy, or SOCI, where would you feel exposed?
Does the board get information that lets it govern technology risk, or just status updates?
How would you rate the board's collective fluency on AI governance, honestly?
What keeps you up at night that the board hasn't formally discussed?
Why I built Meridian
A note from the founder.
For 25 years I ran the high-stakes programs boards are accountable for. Again and again I watched the same thing: the board's view of a risk and the organisation's reality had quietly drifted apart, and no one in the room could see the gap until it cost them. Meridian exists to close that gap before it does. One independent read, across every domain a board owns, in plain English. That is the whole idea.
— Tom Collins, Founder, Meridian Governance
