Whistleblower protection

My take

Companies have a moral and economic duty to uphold transparency, accountability and integrity at every level, and protecting the people who speak up sits at the heart of that. A concern raised from inside an organisation is usually an early warning, not a threat. Boards that treat it as a threat tend to hear about the problem only once it has become a scandal. The law needs to catch up too. Right now, whistleblowers are largely left to fend for themselves, which is why I believe the UK needs an independent Office for Whistleblowers. Speaking up will always take bravery, but courage shouldn't be a prerequisite for exposing wrongdoing.

Why I see it this way

Much of my career has been spent on the oversight side, on the boards of Kazakhstan's central bank and its financial markets regulator, and in government through the 2008 financial crisis. That work taught me that the best oversight is often the least visible, and that the cost of weak governance only becomes clear once something has gone wrong. It also taught me that governance comes down to people. Rules and frameworks matter, but they only work when the people who see wrongdoing feel safe enough to say so.

What I'm watching

I'm watching the push for an Office for Whistleblowers in the UK, and whether the law on both sides of the Atlantic can protect people before retaliation happens, rather than only compensating them afterwards. I'm watching whether boards start to treat a strong speak-up culture as a mark of good governance, not a liability to be managed. And I'm watching whether international bodies, in sport, finance and beyond, finally face real accountability for how they're run.