CoSec Connect: Key takeaways from our breakfast roundtable for company secretaries

On Wednesday 25 March 2026, our Mourant Governance Services team welcomed members of our new CoSec Connect network to The Lombard Club in London for an engaging breakfast roundtable event.

The event was the first of the year in a planned series of peer-led sessions for company secretaries and governance professionals which began at the end of 2025.

Discussion themes

The topic of this session was ‘Thriving through changes: Balancing passions, workload, and regulatory shifts.’

Within this subject, facilitators explored:

• How market changes and evolving regulations (including Building Safety Act, ECCTA, and various other industry changes) will reshape leadership priorities.
• Guiding teams and boards through changes: Practical strategies for steering organisations through compliance while maintaining agility and trust.
• Personal resilience: Techniques to balance personal passions with demanding workloads in times of change.

The session was facilitated by Abiola Motajo, a Director of Mourant Governance Services in London. Carl McConnell, Director and Global Real Estate Industry Lead at Mourant Governance Services, and Victoria Morgan from UK real estate and investment manager, Catella APAM, led the discussions, sharing their personal stories and insights.

Victoria spoke about her background and career to date, including her pivot into leading a team of older colleagues at a young age in a male dominated industry; drawing on the nervousness she felt in the early days and reflecting on how she developed personal resilience, as well as learning through experience.

Carl talked about his journey, initially as a lawyer, to his current role as Director within Mourant Governance Services. He spoke about his desire to work within corporate and institutional space over private client led to that shift, which came with some uncertainty as it was around the time of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) introduction, which caused the potential for regulatory shifts.

Highlights

• Strategic governance: Valuable individual and team insights on how to support organisational resilience through current market and regulatory shifts.  
• Shared experiences: Attendees openly discussed personal practices and passions that help them stay grounded in times of stress.  
• Peer support: The roundtable reinforced the value of connecting with peers who understand the challenges of governance roles. 

Key takeaways 

The speakers touched on the fear that regulatory change can bring and the importance of taking the fear away and being transparent in order to bring clients on the journey. Summing up, Carl spoke about how regulatory change is inevitable, but the onus is on organisations to adapt to survive. 

Following discussion within the room, it was agreed that having the right culture within an organisation is key to adapting to these changes, with a leadership team that provides transparency and clear communication to the team and clients. Having a strategy to be agile is worthless unless the culture within the team has a proactive mindset to see challenge as opportunity.  

Victoria and Carl also highlighted the value of balancing personal passions, which are what can give us space from our day job, bring clarity of mind, and build resilience. This allows us to perform at our best. Some very inspiring personal stories were shared which showed how doing something for yourself that you are passionate about can help resolve a problem or give a fresh perspective on an issue.  

Looking ahead 

Future sessions will continue to explore topical industry topics, workplace wellbeing, and opportunities for informal networking.  

You can also review a summary of the previous session on our website.  

If you are interested in attending future events, please get in touch via the contact form at the bottom of the page.