Investment firm Oasis sponsors scholarships for qualified women on BDTI courses
In a major move for diversity, Oasis Management Company Ltd. will support director training for women in Japan at the respected Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI). For the third year, Oasis will pay all costs for qualified women who enroll by the end of June to take any of BDTI’s director training courses described below.
I can personally recommend BDTI because I attended their excellent English-language “Director Boot Camp” in April 2020. This one-day intensive program teaches participants key legal and corporate governance knowledge they need to responsibly serve on boards of Japanese companies, both public and private. The course consists of short lectures interspersed with time for interactive discussion and Q&A about real-life situations that occur on boards, and how to handle them. BDTI also packages its e-learning modules with this course, for Japanese speakers.
BDTI Representative Director Nicholas Benes said, “In previous years, so many qualified women applied that we scheduled additional dates for more programs. Last year we saw a further increase in the number of women with substantial managerial experience and/or special qualifications such as CPA, CFA, or legal qualifications. Since FY2021, a full 48% of the participants in BDTI’s 'standard' open-to-the-public courses have been women, a level that is almost five times the average level of female inclusion in Japanese listed companies’ boards. Having trained more than 3,300 persons over the past 12 years, we are now seeing more of BDTI's female graduates serving as outside directors.”
The goal of the initiative is to equip highly qualified women leaders with the skills and training needed to succeed as effective board directors, and to proactively address the continuing imbalance in board gender diversity in Japan by expanding the pipeline of board-ready women director candidates.
“Improving gender diversity on boards in Japan by adding qualified female directors is something we are focused on and believe will improve governance and competitiveness at Japanese companies,” Seth Fischer, the Founder & Chief Investment Officer of Oasis said. “We strongly encourage all women who are interested to take advantage of this opportunity to access BDTI’s excellent director education programs.”
BDTI’s Japanese and English-language training programs covered by the initiative have been designed by leading experts in Japan to prepare candidates to serve as directors or executive officers by addressing key skill and knowledge gaps.
About BDTI
BDTI is a public interest nonprofit in Japan dedicated to training about directorship, corporate governance, and related management techniques. It is certified by the Japanese government to conduct these activities as a regulated nonprofit, and also to provide data and database services related to corporate disclosure. Benes is the person who proposed the concept of a governance code to the Japanese government in 2013, including its principle specifically mentioning gender diversity. Download a summary of BDTI here.
Programs Covered by this Initiative
English-language “Director Boot Camp" (as detailed above)
Governance Juku: Basic Training for all Directors
This one-day intensive program prepares participants with the basic knowledge necessary that all directors and executive officers should have. The course is taught by leading experts, and includes sections on corporate governance theory and practice, corporate law, finance, securities law, and case studies.
Advanced Outside Director Training
This full-day course is based on extensive pre-reading materials that have distilled wisdom and detailed advice collected from a diverse group of women, men, and foreigners who have experience serving on multiple boards in Japan. The course covers practical topics such as governance and committee practices, strategic and strategic planning by boards, diversity, ESG, techniques for contributing and monitoring, D&O insurance, the interview and contracting process, as well as many other topics. The interactive program is delivered by two lecturers who can speak from their extensive real-life board experience. (Pre-requisite: Boot Camp, Governance Juku, or equivalent knowledge.)
Case Study and Role Play Course
In this full-day course, participants “role play” based on four detailed case studies inspired by real-life events, and discuss the issues in “post-game” analysis. Participants do not know which role they will have until the day of the course, thereby ensuring they fully analyze each director’s respective position, incentives, and tendencies. After role-play is over, the group objectively analyzes the lessons learned, what happened in reality, and why. (Pre-requisite: Boot Camp, Governance Juku, or equivalent knowledge.)
Finance for Non-Finance Persons
A six-week course focusing on reading and analyzing financial statements, understanding modern finance techniques, and the role of the CFO. The course teaches participants to read BS, P&L, and CF statements, and about working capital, CCC, the cost of capital, the various financial ratios, and topics such as what determines stock prices; capital policy trade-offs, and how to evaluate corporate value and business units. The course is conducted using real-life examples appropriate to each participant.
BDTI offers low-cost e-learning courses on company law, securities law, corporate governance basics, and corporate governance practice. All four modules (about nine hours of training) come as part of the “package” for the Governance ‘Juku’, so that participants can gain core knowledge in advance of the course, and afterwards.
About Oasis
Oasis Management Company Ltd. manages private investment funds focused on opportunities in a wide array of asset classes across countries and sectors. Oasis was founded in 2002 by Seth H. Fischer, who leads the firm as its Chief Investment Officer. More information about Oasis is available at https://oasiscm.com.
Oasis has adopted Japan FSA’s “Principles of Responsible Institutional Investors” (Japan Stewardship Code) and in line with those principles, Oasis monitors and engages with its investee companies. Oasis is a member of the 30% Club Japan and Hong Kong Chapter Investor Groups and is a founding member of the Hong Kong Board Diversity Investor Initiative.
To apply or for more details:
info@bdti.or.jp
03-6432-2337
For media inquiries:
Taylor Hall media@oasiscm.com
Simon Farrell
Publisher, Custom Media
