As a private company, The Economist Group company is not bound by the Listing Rules of the Financial Services Authority to report on compliance with the Principles of Good Governance and Code of Best Practice ('the Combined Code'). However, the Group has always sought to run its corporate affairs in line with best practice and therefore follows the main principles of the Combined Code as closely as is reasonably practicable and useful to shareholders.
The Board currently comprises ten non-executive directors and three executive directors. The non-executive directors have a breadth of successful commercial and professional experience and they exercise independent judgment. Lord Stevenson, who was appointed by The Financial Times Limited, was until September 30th 2005 chairman of its parent company, Pearson plc. Sir David Bell is chairman of the Financial Times and Rona Fairhead is chief executive of the Financial Times Group; they are also executive directors of Pearson plc. Lynn Forester de Rothschild and her spouse, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, are each interested in a significant number of shares. The Board is chaired by Sir Robert Wilson.