Experience.
Independence.
Professionalism.

Diamond Governance Network
is an alliance of the following members, all independent corporate governance and company secretarial practitioners specialising in sharing knowledge and providing premium solutions.

Our Network Practitioners

A collaboration of influential company secretaries with centuries of combined
FTSE listed and private company experience in-house and as consultants.

Chris Stamp

Chris is a governance professional, board reviewer and business adviser with a strong understanding of corporate governance in UK listed companies built up over 35 years. After working as a company secretary with a number of blue-chip companies, in 2002 Chris set up Prism Cosec, a leading company secretarial practice which is now part of the Equiniti Group. Chris founded Ceradas in 2017 as an independent practice providing corporate governance advisory, professional development and board review services to directors and company secretaries. Chris works with companies across a broad range of sectors from FTSE100 to small cap, large private and AIM. Chris is a Founder member of The Board Effectiveness Guild, whose central purpose is to share best practice in board effectiveness reviews and a trainer on the Advanced Board Performance Review course run by the Chartered Governance Institute. Chris holds a BA (Hons) in history from Southampton University and an MBA from Warwick Business School (WBS).

Simon Maynard

Simon is Chartered Secretary and fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute with approaching 20 years’ experience, initially in-house with a FTSE 100 commercial property (including five years as Assistant Company Secretary with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the company secretarial function). More recently (until March 2022) Simon was a Client Director of Prism Cosec, a Company Secretarial professional services organisation, with responsibility for a portfolio of Main Market listed and AIM quoted companies in a number of sectors including hospitality and leisure, retail, life sciences, manufacturing, technology and financial services. Specific tasks for these and other clients included full management of the Board process, corporate governance implementation, annual report drafting, pre and post IPO policy implementation and Board timetabling, share scheme management and implementation, staff mentoring, and AGM project management. Upon leaving Prism Cosec, Simon was part-time in-house Company Secretary of an AIM quoted corporate broking and strategic advisory firm until April 2024, as well as acting as outsourced Company Secretary for two main market and one AIM quoted companies through Bernwood Cosec (established in January 2022). Since April 2024, Simon has focussed on developing his client portfolio through Bernwood Cosec.

Jenny Casson

Jenny has over 30 years’ experience in the company secretarial profession in a variety of sectors. Working in house she provided the full range of company secretarial tasks including annual report writing and production, share scheme administration and corporate governance work. Jenny then joined Prism CoSec with a portfolio of Main Market and AIM clients. She provided a wide range of services including board and company meeting support, corporate governance advice, writing governance sections of the annual report including remuneration reports, producing shareholder documents and organising AGMs. Latterly Jenny has also provided knowledge support to company secretarial teams and written briefings on a variety of topics of interest to company secretaries. In her spare time Jenny runs an antique business with her husband, focusing on Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian furniture but also selling paintings, mirrors and individual antique items.

Kerin Williams

Kerin is Company Secretary with over 30 years experience having worked in-house in senior positions within company secretarial departments for FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies in property, chemicals, banking and printing. More recently Kerin was Managing Director of Prism Cosec, a Company Secretarial professional services organisation setting up their AIM company offering. Clients included FTSE 350 and AIM companies in sectors including mining, telecoms, fashion, insurance, property and financial services. Specific tasks included full management of the Board process, projection management for Annual Reports, post IPO policy implementation, share scheme management and implementation, AGM projection management, annual report compliance reports, joint venture management and board meeting attendance. Kerin founded Trakehner Cosec in 2020 and is currently named company secretary to main market and AIM companies.

Viv Hemming

Viv is a seasoned governance professional with over 30 years of experience, including significant roles in FTSE 350 companies. She has held both in-house company secretary posts and advisory roles, guiding boards of directors through governance requirements during, and, post-IPO. Viv's expertise extends to the charity sector, where she has served on trustee boards. Currently, she focuses on research, both for clients and for articles on governance and corporate affairs.

Stefan Bort

Stefan has nearly 40 years’ experience as a qualified company secretary. His initial career was spent in-house working in senior roles for several UK major listed companies, including George Wimpey, Hays and Prudential. He has a wide range of experience covering board management and administration; corporate governance structures and implementation; share and incentive plan management; and corporate reporting. During this time, he has been involved in numerous major corporate transactions and company reorganisations; implementation of several new share incentive arrangements; and major litigation management. Since 2016, Stefan has been acting as a company secretarial consultant undertaking major projects for clients: including board services for UK listed companies with overseas operations; governance arrangements for several IPOs on the London market; company secretarial department reviews and team member mentoring; migration of share plan administration to new suppliers; and corporate governance reporting.

Experience. Independence. Professionalism.