Governance professionals have pocketed a 20 per cent pay increase in the past few years as directors increasingly lean on them for comfort on regulation, governance experts said.

The average salary for governance professionals in large companies is now more than $375,000, according to Chartered Secretaries Australia (CSA). A study carried out by CSA revealed that company secretaries are now the ‘go to’ people on governance for boards of directors. And the increasing profile of risk management at board level is driving the trend, CSA said.

“In 97 per cent of organisations, company secretaries have primary responsibility for the increasingly complex and important area of corporate governance. No longer in just an administrative role, the company secretary provides essential, high-level strategic advice; and companies are clearly willing to pay for it,”CSA CEO Tim Sheehy said.

The number of company secretaries now providing support to board risk committees has risen significantly, according to the study, with 44 per cent now involved. But that has come at a cost.

“In order to focus on the job of governance and risk, they have been shedding other roles, with the number responsible for investor relations down to 11 per cent, from 34 per cent in 2001; superannuation down to 21 per cent from 32 per cent; and those who combine the role with general counsel has slipped by 8 per cent down to 41 per cent,” Sheehy said.

However, the downside of the new world of corporate governance is the strain on boards’ time. “The risk of information overload looks set to become a governance issue in itself, with over 61 per cent of companies sending out board packs of up to 150 pages, whereas only one third of companies received this many pages in 2003 and just 15 per cent in 2001,”Sheehy said.