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Board of Directors
| Name |
Principal Occupation |
Director Since |
| Donald Steele (1)(2)(3)(4) |
President, Mercantile Bancorp Ltd |
April 25, 2005 |
| Mitchell Taylor (1)(2)(3) |
President & CEO, Bellingham Marine Industries |
May 17, 2005 |
| Dan. J. Stearne |
President and CEO of Inventronics
since May 2000. |
Sept. 17, 1998 |
Alan R. Wiggan (1)(2)(3) |
Retired since 2001. Previously, Senior Partner, Parallel
Strategies, a marketing and communications firm |
March 8, 2002 |
(1) = Audit Committee member
(2) = Compensation Committee member
(3) = Governance Committee member
(4) = Chairman
Corporate Governance Guidelines The
Toronto Stock Exchange has guidelines to ensure that its listed companies,
and those listed on Tier 1 of its TSX Venture Exchange affiliate, practice good
corporate governance. Inventronics strongly endorses this initiative.
Here are the guidelines, and corresponding information about
Inventronics' practices.
| TSX Guidelines |
Inventronics' Practices |
| 1) The Board of directors of every corporation should
explicitly assume responsibility for
the stewardship of the Corporation. |
The Board's mandate is to provide direction for the appropriate
stewardship of Inventronics, and to act in the best interests of
its stakeholders.
The Board conducts its activities in accordance with:
the Business Corporations Act (Alberta);
the Corporation's Articles of Continuation and By-Laws;
the Corporation's Code of Conduct; and
other applicable Inventronics policies.
The Board approves all significant decisions that affect the
Company before they are implemented. It also provides guidance in their
implementation and reviews the results. |
As part of the overall stewardship responsibility, the Board
of directors of every corporation should assume responsibility for:
(a) the adoption of a strategic planning process |
The Inventronics Board had adopted a planning
process that establishes long-range objectives and an annual review of the
strategic plan. Significant Management initiatives with a material
impact upon the strategic plan require Board approval. |
|
| (b) the identification of principal risks, and the implementation
of appropriate systems to manage these risks; |
The Board ensures that Management has identified the principal risks
facing Inventronics and that policies and systems are in place
to address these risks. The Board regularly reviews reports and discusses
significant risk issues with Management and with the Corporation's auditors.
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| (c) succession planning, including appointing, training and
monitoring senior management; |
The Inventronics Board is responsible for choosing the President
and CEO and for the monitoring of senior Management
performance through annual reviews. The Board establishes the
corporate goals and compensation of the President and CEO. The Board
also ensures that processes are in place to recruit senior managers
with the highest standards of integrity and competence, and to
train, develop and retain them.
|
| (d) communications policy for the corporation; |
The Board, through its Audit Committee, approves all of Inventronics' major
communications including annual and quarterly reports, financial
documents and news releases. The Board has designated the President
and CEO, and the Senior VP and CFO, as Inventronics' primary
spokesmen to ensure effective, consistent communication between
the Company and its shareholders, regulatory agencies and the
public. Inventronics has a Corporate Disclosure Policy that ensures
the accurate and timely communication of all important information
via news releases, the Corporation's Web site, conference calls, etc. |
| (e) the integrity of the corporation's internal control and
management information systems. |
The Board, through its Audit Committee, examines the effectiveness of
Inventronics' internal control processes and management information
systems. The Committee reviews the methods of controlling
corporate assets and information systems, and oversees the
financial reporting process in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles. |
| 2) The board of directors of every corporation should be
constituted with a majority of individuals who qualify as
unrelated directors. |
A majority of Inventronics' five Directors are unrelated. The
exceptions are Dan J. Stearne, the Corporation's President and CEO,
and Julian Remedios, a partner in Mercantile Bancorp Limited,
agent for Inventronics' subordinated debt lenders. |
| 3) The application of the definition of "unrelated" director to
the circumstances of each individual director should be the
responsibility of the Board, which will be required to disclose on
an annual basis whether the Board has a majority of unrelated
directors. |
The Board as a whole reviews the relationships that each Director,
through his involvement with other enterprises, has with
Inventronics. See also the Item 2 information. |
| 4) The Board of directors of every corporation should appoint a committee
of directors composed exclusively of outside (non-management)
directors, a majority of whom are unrelated directors, with the
responsibility for proposing to the full Board new nominees to the
Board and for assessing directors on an ongoing basis. |
The Board has a Governance Committee, composed exclusively of outside
directors, a majority of whom are unrelated directors, that is responsible for
the nomination process and for assessing directors on an ongoing basis. |
| 5) Every Board of directors should implement a process to be carried
out by the nominating committee or other appropriate committee for
assessing the effectiveness of the Board as a whole, the committees
of the Board, and the contribution of individual directors. |
The role of the Governance Committee is to evaluate
the effectiveness of the Board, Board committees and individual Directors.
The Committee surveys Directors to provide feedback on the
effectiveness of the Board. The Committee recommends changes to
enhance the performance of the Board, based on the survey feedback.
|
| 6) Every corporation, as an integral element of the process for
appointing new directors, should provide an orientation and
education program for new recruits to the Board. |
The Chairman, CEO and various Board members conduct information
sessions for both
new and existing Board members. All new members receive a Board
manual containing a record of historical public information about
Inventronics, as well as the charters of the Board and its
committees, and other relevant corporate and business information.
Senior managers make regular presentations to the Board concerning
the main areas of Inventronics' business. |
| 7) Every Board of directors should examine its size and, with
a view to determining the impact of the number upon effectiveness,
undertake where appropriate, a program to reduce the number of
directors to a number which facilitates more effective
decision-making. |
The Board's size, at five directors, is viewed at this time
as being very effective. It enables the Board to operate in an
efficient and prudent manner. |
| 8) The Board of directors should review the adequacy and
form of the
compensation of directors, and ensure the compensation
realistically reflects the responsibilities and risk involved in
being an effective director. |
The Board's compensation, in addition to annual retainers and
meeting fees, is tied to the performance of the Corporation through
share options, and is assessed by the Board annually. |
| 9) Committees of the Board of directors should generally be
composed of outside (non-management) directors, a majority of whom
are unrelated directors. |
All Committees of the Board are composed of non-Management
directors, a majority of whom are unrelated. |
| 10) Every Board of directors should expressly assume
responsibility for, or assign to a committee of directors the
general responsibility for, developing the corporation's approach
to governance issues. This committee would, amongst other things,
be responsible for the corporation's response to these governance
guidelines. |
The Governance Committee is responsible for developing
and monitoring Inventronics' overall governance principles,
recommending any changes, and approving the Company's
disclosures in response to the TSX governance guidelines. |
| 11) The Board of directors, together with the CEO, should develop
position descriptions for the Board and for the CEO, involving the
definition of the limits to management's responsibilities. In
addition, the Board should approve or develop the corporate
objectives the CEO is responsible for meeting. |
The Board has established policies which define the
limits to Management's responsibilities; in addition, it
develops position descriptions for the Board and corporate
objectives for the CEO. |
| 12) Every Board of directors should have in place appropriate structures and
procedures to ensure that the Board can function independently of management. |
The Board is comprised of a majority of independent
directors. The Board regularly meets independent of Management and
independently with the Corporation's auditors. The Chairman is an
independent director with the sole responsibility for setting
Board agendas. |
| 13) The Audit Committee of every Board of directors should be
composed only of outside (non-management) directors. The roles and
responsibilities of the Audit Committee should be specifically defined so as to
provide appropriate guidance to Audit Committee members as to their duties. The
Audit Committee should have direct communication lines with the internal and
external auditors to discuss and review specific issues as appropriate. The Audit
Committee's duties should include oversight responsibility for management
reporting on internal control. |
The Audit Committee, which is composed of outside directors,
is a separately constituted committee of the Board. It is
responsible for reviewing audit functions and recommending for
approval to the Board all public disclosure information. The
Committee makes inquiries to ensure that Management has effective
internal control systems in place, and meets with the auditors with
and without Management present on a quarterly basis. |
| 14) The Board of directors should implement a system that enables an
individual director to engage an outside advisor at the expense of the corporation
in appropriate circumstances. The engagement of the outside advisor should be
subject to the approval of an appropriate committee of the Board. |
Individual Board members may engage outside advisors at the
Corporation's expense, subject to the approval of the Chairman. |
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