Corporate secretaries have an important role to play as governance professionals in all types of organizations in the private, public, and not-forprofit sectors. Governance is more than just complying with laws, regulations, standards, and codes; it is also about creating cultures of good practice. This means that corporate secretaries need more than the technical skills and experience to know what corporate governance practices are needed in an organization and why. They also need the emotional intelligence, skills, and experience to ensure that they know how the practices typically would be implemented to work effectively. The modern corporate secretary is no longer a “mere servant,” as often implied in earlier job descriptions and early legal text, but is now expected to provide professional guidance to shareholders, boards, individual directors, management, and other stakeholders on the governance aspects of strategic decisions.