These Corporate Governance Principles contain an overview of our corporate governance framework, and were developed and approved by the Nominating and Governance Committee and, on its recommendation, adopted by the Joint, Supervisory and Managing Boards in May 2008.

These Corporate Governance Principles, as well as our Articles of Association, Board and Board Committee charters and key company policies, as updated from time to time, are available on this  website or by requesting a printed copy from the Company Secretary at the company’s head office at Atrium, 8th Floor, Strawinskylaan 3077, 1077ZX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Corporate governance at James Hardie

As a trans-national organisation, James Hardie operates under the regulatory requirements of numerous jurisdictions and organisations, including the Dutch Authority Financial Markets, the ASX, ASIC, the NYSE, the US SEC and various other rule-making bodies.

We believe it is important that our behaviour reflects the spirit, as well as the letter, of the law and we aim to govern the company in a way that meets or exceeds appropriate community expectations. James Hardie’s corporate governance framework is reviewed regularly and updated as appropriate to reflect what we believe are our and our stakeholders’ interests, changes in law and current best practices. Last year, the Nominating and Governance Committee and Supervisory Board conducted a review of our corporate governance structure and practices. We have considered the regulatory requirements and current best practices in The Netherlands, Australia and the United States and, where these vary across these jurisdictions, we have adopted what we consider to be the standards most appropriate to James Hardie.

Our corporate governance framework incorporates a number of processes and policies designed to provide the Joint, Supervisory and Managing Boards (the Boards) with appropriate assurance about the operations and governance of the company and thereby protect shareholder value. Further details of these processes and policies are set out in this area of the site.

The pages in this section of our website contain an overview of our corporate governance framework.