I'm pleased to announce I have joined ALTURA Governance as an Independent Director.
Altura Governance was founded by Niaz Khan, formerly CEO for Cayman and Asia Pacific at Waystone, with more than 20 years of experience in the alternative investment industry. Niaz has built boutique platform with genuine institutional depth, bringing together experienced governance professionals across the Cayman Islands, North America, and Hong Kong. That combination—boutique agility, institutional capability—is exactly what sophisticated fund managers and sponsors should be looking for.
This role complements my work at GPS Legal LLP, an independent Hong Kong law firm where I advise on corporate, funds, and finance matters. The two roles sit naturally alongside each other: legal advice and board-level governance oversight are different disciplines, but they draw on the same deep understanding of how complex structures work and where risk concentrates.
Beyond the Checkbox
If you are an asset manager, you almost certainly already know you need an independent director. Regulatory expectations, investor demands, and governance best practice have made that a given.
The real question is whether you have the right one.
Independent directors are not supposed to blindly sign off on board minutes. At their best, they bring genuine board-level judgment to complex situations—challenging assumptions, managing conflicts, reviewing key transaction documentation, and providing oversight when execution risk is at its highest.
Governance doesn’t get tested during quiet periods. It gets tested during leverage events, restructurings, complex financing arrangements, and other high-stakes moments where the cost of getting it wrong runs high.
The Gap Between Compliance and Judgment
Many funds appoint independent directors who are perfectly qualified on paper. What they sometimes lack is the practical depth to interrogate complex financing structures, identify where risk concentrates, or challenge external counsel and service providers effectively.
This is where background matters. An independent director who has spent 20+ years advising lenders, borrowers, and sponsors on cross-border transactions—navigating Cayman, BVI, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and Jersey structures—brings a different quality of judgment to the table. Not just governance familiarity, but genuine transactional instinct.
What the Right Independent Director Looks Like
In my view, the right independent director brings:
- Transactional depth — understanding of leveraged structures, financing arrangements, and how risk evolves across a fund’s lifecycle
- Jurisdictional fluency — familiarity with Cayman, BVI, Bermuda, Hong Kong and other offshore structures where most alternative funds are domiciled
- Genuine independence — the willingness to ask hard questions, push back, and prioritise governance over relationships. This requires clarity on director duties and potential liability across different jurisdictions
- Practical judgment — knowing when to escalate, when to challenge, and how to coordinate effectively between boards, managers, and service providers
Let’s Talk
If you’re managing or building alternative investment funds and want to discuss governance, board-level oversight, or what the right independent director could bring to your structure, I’d welcome the conversation.
You can read more about Altura Governance and the full team at alturagovernance.com.