The 2025 Sylvia Tutt Memorial Lecture - Achieving balance: good governance and growth.

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The Sylvia Tutt Memorial Lecture will, this year, be preceded by a presentation of the findings of 'The Importance of Values for Governance', a research project that commenced in June 2023 with collaboration between the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and Leeds Beckett University Business School.

The event will be in two parts - the presentation and the lecture - and you are invited to attend either or both at no cost. The presentation will start at 5pm and you can then meet with the presenters over tea and coffee after. The Tutt Lecture starts at 7pm. After the lecture closes, you are welcome to stay for a glass of wine or soft drink served with canapes, to network and mingle with friends, before the event ends at 9pm.

The title of this year's lecture is "Achieving balance: good governance and growth" and will be presented by Head of Davis Polk's Europe practice, Will Pearce.

Will Pearce is head of Davis Polk’s Europe practice and leads the M&A practice in London. He advises corporate, private equity and investment banking clients on domestic and cross-border private and public M&A transactions, takeovers and mergers, and securities offerings and listings, as well as on corporate governance, shareholder activism and restructuring matters. With over 25 years’ of corporate finance experience, he has been recognized as a leading individual for both corporate/M&A and equity capital markets in the leading directories including Chambers, which quotes clients describing him as “a very professional adviser who has deep knowledge of his space”, “able to provide strong advice and is a very easy and personable person to work with”, “has encyclopaedic knowledge, paired with level-headed clarity of objectivity and advice” and “is very responsive and hard-working”. Among others, he has been named as a “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer and The Deal, an “M&A MVP of the Year” by Law360 and one of Europe’s most influential lawyers by Financial News.

Will studied European Law at Warwick University in the UK and Université de Lille II in France from 1991 to 1995 and the Legal Practice Course at Nottingham Law School from 1995 to 1996. He trained at Herbert Smith where he worked in London, Hong Kong and Madrid, qualified in September 1998 and became a partner in April 2006. He joined U.S. law firm Davis Polk as a partner in May 2013 and became head of Davis Polk’s London office and Europe practice in November 2021. Over the course of his career, Will has written and spoken extensively on a range of corporate finance topics. He is a founding member of the pro bono legal panel for The Investor Forum, a not-for-profit, practitioner-led membership organisation, set up by institutional investors in UK Equities in 2014 in response to The Kay Review with a view to positioning stewardship at the heart of investment.

After the lecture closes, you are welcome to stay for a glass of wine or soft drink, served with canapes, to network and mingle with friends, before the event ends at 9pm.

Please join us for what should be a fascinating evening!

Previously named The Tutt Rivers Lecture, in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Sylvia Tutt becoming the first female Master of any livery company, and the continuing benefit we continue to receive from the investment income from her bequest to the Company, the Court decided to change the name of our annual lecture to 'The Sylvia Tutt Memorial Lecture'.

Stationers' Hall is a Grade I listed building, close to St Paul's Cathedral. It is one of the few ancient Livery Halls remaining in the City of London. Completed in 1673 after the Great Fire of London, the Hall's suite of magnificent, inter-linking rooms as well as the secluded garden makes it one of the most sought after venues in the City for Corporate events and Livery functions.

Please note that the presentation and lecture will be filmed. These recordings may be used on the Company website and shared on our social media platforms.