The Boardroom: A Guide to Effective Leadership and Good Corporate Governance in Southeast Asia

Most books about corporate governance are written for a Western audience. The Boardroom, however, takes a different approach to leadership development by emphasizing the unique socio-cultural and judicial features as well as idiosyncratic board structures in Asia, particularly in an Indonesian context.

The principles of good corporate governance are accepted across borders, but the implementation and translation of transparency, fairness, accountability, and responsibility can differ quite distinctly from one country to another. Amidst global competitive turbulence, socio-economic volatility, and geopolitical uncertainty, The Boardroom analyses how Asian boardroom leaders steer organizations and how boards can be more effective.

Boardmembers - appointed and entrusted by their owners - are guardians with a fiduciary duty to safeguard an organization and prepare it for a viable and sustainable future.
Business managers, investors, academics, students and those interested in doing business in Asia will benefit from The Boardroom’s practical insights and recommendations to improve corporate governance and strengthen competitive advantage.

"The Boardroom" - a book written by my predecessor Dr Tanri Abeng and his co-author Prof. Dr. Peter Verhezen who both combine practical experience and academic in-depth research - gives a good overview of what can and should be expected from a board. The authors describe the generic accepted governance principles, but rightfully claim the need to translate them into specific rules and regulations that make sense for Indonesian and other Asian companies.
Erick Thohir, The Minister of State-Owned Enterprises of the Republic of Indonesia

Understanding the dynamics of successful organizations is like being on a quest. It probably never ends. Organizations are open and social systems that cannot be managed or governed using simple theories and recipes. Hence, this book invites you to start your own leadership journey and become more mindful of your role in the functioning of a company.
Prof. Dr. Koen Vandenbempt, Dean of the Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium

Dr. Peter Verhezen is a professor of strategy and corporate governance at the University of Antwerp and AMS (Belgium), and advises boards on governance and risk. He was a former Associate Professor for global corporate governance at the University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor at MBS (Australia), and a Fellow for Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School (USA). He worked as senior consultant for corporate governance at IFC–World Bank in Asia Pacific, and as a debt negotiator-advisor for IBRA-IMF during the ‘Asian crisis’. He co-founded and ran an IBM spin-off software company, Cimad Pacific, in the early nineties for more than fifteen years in Southeast Asia before it was acquired by another international consultancy.

Dr. Tanri Abeng is a former CEO of Heineken Indonesia (Bintang), and was the first minister of state-owned enterprises in Indonesia during the Asian crisis in the late nineties. He has served as an elected member of People's Consultative Assembly, and was the board’s chairman of the state-owned telco company, PT Telkom, and the state owned gas- and oil company, PT Pertamina. He has been a CEO and advisor of a Indonesian family controlled conglomerate. Today he chairs the board of state-owned Bio Farma in Indonesia. He is also the rector of Tanri Abeng University and the Executive Center for Global Leadership in Jakarta-Indonesia.