The Board of Directors is well aware of its roles, duties and responsibilities for directing the Company’s operation, monitoring the Management’s operation, performing duties with knowledge, competence, transparency, due care and accountability for the Company and its shareholders and being independent of the Management. Here are the key guidelines on the Board’s operations:
The Company has specified qualifications of the Board of Directors as follows:
According to the Board of Directors Meeting No.7/2011, the Meeting had a resolution to acknowledge the qualification of Independent Directors comply with requirements stipulated by the SEC and the SET. Therefore, the qualification of Company’s Independent Directors shall be as in the followings:
Any person being appointed as Independent Director of the Company may be a person who has or has had a business relationship, or may be a professional advisor receiving amount exceeding those specified in item 5 or 6 in case the Board of Directors has duly considered that relationship will not affect the ability to perform duties and express independent opinions.
Directors shall hold the terms as stipulated in the Public Limited Companies Act B.E. 2535 and the Company’s Articles of Association, which reads “At each annual general meeting of shareholders, 1/3 of the directors, or if the number is not a multiple of 3, then the number nearest to 1/3, must retire from office. The directors who have been the longest in office shall retire first. The retiring directors may be re-elected.” The Nomination and Remuneration Committee will select and nominate qualified persons to be directors to the Board of Directors before seeking approval from the shareholders’ meeting.
The Board of Directors has stipulated that members of the Audit Committee, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, Risk Management Committee and Corporate Governance and Ethics Committee shall each have a term of 3 years and may be re-appointed as deemed fit by the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors recognizes the importance of new director orientation and had adopted a policy and method on this matter as follows:
The Board of Directors encourages, supports and provides convenience for all parties concerned with the Company’s corporate governance processes such as directors, sub-committee members, management, Company Secretary, Investor Relations Department, Accounting Department, etc. to participate in training and seminar programs or activities arranged by Thai Institute of Directors (IOD), the SET, the SEC, Thai Listed Companies Association, Thai Investors Association or other independent organizations on a regular and continuous basis in a bid to enhance their knowledge and operational efficiency. The Board of Directors has assigned the Company Secretary to coordinate with the directors and management and inform them of details about the said training courses.
As of December 31, 2021, the Board of Directors and sub- committees attending courses organized by IOD and by other institutions, as tabulated below:
The Board of Directors announced the Board meeting’s schedule in advance for 1 entire year, to the directors and the relevant parties, requiring that a regular meeting be arranged at least once every quarter (4 times a year), with a special session meeting allowed to be convened as deemed necessary. Agenda items are also pre-determined and are clearly divided into categories such as issues for information, issues for approval and issues for consideration.
The Company screens the proposed items to make certain that all crucial issues are included in the agenda, whereas all board members are entitled to propose agenda items independently. The Company Secretary submits an invitation letter complete with the meeting agenda and accompanied by related documents to all board members at least 7 days ahead of the meeting date to allow the board members sufficient time to consider the issues. Where it is deemed essential or urgent, the meeting request can be notified by other method or the meeting can be arranged sooner. A meeting usually takes 1-2 hours. The Company Secretary takes the minutes of the meeting.
To promote the Board of Directors’ performance, the Office of Corporate Secretary determined criteria and forms for the completeness, adequacy and suitability of information submitted to the Board of Directors, aiming to enable the Board of Directors’ meetings to proceed smoothly, quickly and efficiently, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, for all units concerned to use as reference and standards in preparing information before submitting to the Office of Corporate Secretary for compiling as a proposal to each Board of Directors’ meeting.
In each meeting, the Chairman allows each director to express his/her opinions freely and allocates time appropriately and efficiently. In case of a director having a stake in a matter being considered, the director shall inform the meeting of such stake and shall not participate in discussing the matter and not exercise the voting right on the matter. At least 2/3 of the total number of directors shall be presented to form a quorum at the time of the Board passing a resolution.
The Board of Directors has a policy to encourage each board member to attend the board meeting consistently, with an average participation of at least 80% of total number of board meetings held in each year. The total number of meetings held and attendance by each member of the Board of Directors and board committees are disclosed in the Company’s annual registration statement (Form 56-1) and annual report.
Besides, the Board of Directors has a policy to encourage non-executive directors, independent directors and members of the Audit Committee to hold meetings among themselves as deemed fit in order to discuss about any crucial management issues without the presence of the management. In 2020, the Audit Committee members, held 1 meeting with the external auditor without the presence of the management on February 28th, 2020
The Board of Directors requires that duties be clearly segregated for the purpose of power distribution in decision making and directing, with balance and review in management. This has been continuously improved for suitability and coverage of the Company’s activities, in line with changes in the notification or requirements of regulatory agencies, with management power being put under the Corporate Authorization Index for information and action by parties concerned.
The Board of Directors has established a policy on directorship in other listed companies as follows:
The Board of Directors regularly conducts a yearly Board and Director self-assessment to be a framework to monitor the performance of the duties of the Board, including reconsider processing commentaries on various issues related to the operations of the Company, and duties of the Board during the past year, a summary of the Company Secretary, and present the findings to the Board of Directors to be used to edit and enhance performance.
The Board self-assessment is divided into 5 rankings: 4 = Excellent, 3 = Very Good, 2 = Good, 1 = Unfavourable, 0 = Need Improvement.
The ranking results of Board self-assessment, broken down into 6 categories, for 2020 were as shown below:| Board of Directors Assessment | Director Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment Category |
1. Structure and qualifications of the Board of Directors 2. Roles and responsibilities of the Board of Directors 3. Board of Directors’ meetings 4. Performance as a director 5. Relationship with the management team 6. Director’s personal development and development of the management |
1. Qualifications, knowledge, ability 2. Independence 3. Performance as a director 4. Attention to duty and responsibility 5. Director’s personal development |
| Average Score | 3.73 | 3.77 |
In 2020, the Board of Directors required that self-assessment apply to all Sub-committees, namely, the Audit Committee, Risk Management Committee, Corporate Governance and Ethics Committee and Nomination and Remuneration Committee; formerly this applied to only the Audit Committee. The self assessment results were reported to the Board of Directors on a yearly basis for review of the committees’ performance, including opinions on issues related to their performance of duties during the past year, with an aim to make improvements and enhance work efficiencies. The performance assessment forms were determined according to each committee’s scope of duties and responsibilities. For the Audit Committee, the performance assessment was also based on the Best Practice Guidelines for Audit Committee, developed by the SET, the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD) and companies with good ratings on good corporate governance, where applicable to the Company.
In 2020, all the Sub-committees performed their duties well with knowledge and abilities in accordance with the scopes of duties and responsibilities given in their respective charters and align with the regulator’s best practice guidelines. The Company Secretary summarized the results of each Sub-committee’s performance assessment for submission to the Board of Directors at the Board’s Meeting No.2/2021 on February 25th, 2021. The Sub-Committees assessment is divided into 5 rankings: 4 = Excellent, 3 = Very Good, 2 = Good, 1 = Unfavourable, 0 = Need Improvement
Results of the self-assessment| Sub Committee | Average Score in 2020 |
|---|---|
| 1. Audit Committee | 3.90 |
| 2. Nomination and Remuneration Committee | 3.51 |
| 3. Risk Management Committee | 2.68 |
| 4. Corporate Governance and Ethics Committee | 3.48 |
The Board of Directors has assigned the Nomination and Remuneration Committee to evaluated the performance of the top executive in the organization’s structure (Group CEO) on a yearly basis, for use as a guide in determining the top executive’s remuneration and submit the result of the evaluation to a meeting of the Board of Directors for acknowledgement and approval.
In 2012, the Nomination and Remuneration Committee agreed to improve the evaluation form of the performance of Group CEO to suit the current situation, based on the evaluation form of the performance of the top executive of the Corporate Governance Center, The Stock Exchange of Thailand.
The Group Chief Executive Officer evaluation is divided into 5 rankings: 4 = Performed excellently, 3 = Performed very well, 2 = Performed reasonably, 1 = Performed partially, 0 = Not yet performed.
The overall evaluation, with total scores of 100%, can be classified into 5 levels:
In 2020, the Nomination and Remuneration Committee evaluated the performance of Miss Boosaba Daorueng, the Group Chief Executive Officer for 2020 and reported to the Board of Directors’ meeting No.2/2021 held on February 25th, 2021, that the overall evaluation of the Group Chief Executive Officer was rated “Very Good”, or equivalent to the average score of 92.69%
Succession Plans
The Board of Directors sees the importance and need to support the development of a succession plan for the top executive, Chief Executive Officer and/or other key management positions, which is part of the Company’s human resources management strategy. The Development planning of talented personnel is aimed to cope with any unexpected incapability or vacancy of those key positions to ensure uninterrupted operation.