Articles by Heather Watson

Heather Watson is a Partner at McCullough Robertson Lawyers. Heather has broad experience across the non-profit sector, having acted for and been a member of many community and charitable organisations. Her expertise includes aged health and community services, affordable housing and indigenous communities. Heather focuses on establishing and restructuring legal and tax entities for non-profit organisations, advising boards on risk and governance related issues and establishing charitable foundations. Heather recently completed the maximum nine-year term as a board member of UnitingCare Queensland (including seven years as its Chair).

Governance

The Continuing Convergence of Governance Between Not-for-profit and For-profit Boards

The Role of Government Reform in the Continuing Convergence of Governance Between Not-for-profit Boards and For-profit Boards The convergence of governance of not-for-profit boards towards the modes of governance more typically seen in for-profit boards continues to gather pace as part of a broader, although not entirely consistent, pattern of convergence of corporate governance globally. Whilst this convergence reflects a range of expectations or demands imposed, either directly or indirectly, by various stakeholders of not-for-profit organisations, government, as the only common stakeholder across the whole of the not-for-profit sector, has played an increasingly pivotal role in this process and in particular, a multitude of government reforms have been at the centre of this on-going convergence.