The collapse of trust in big business and its leaders has become the biggest corporate issue of our time, along with the rise of citizen journalism, the demand for greater transparency and the increasingly hostile nature of shareholders. As a result, the need for boards to better manage their company’s reputation and identify risks has never been more critical. Yet when looking at the make-up of boards, particularly those in the FTSE, non-executive directors with these very skills —those with corporate affairs and communications experience—are noticeable by their absence. The majority of corporate affairs directors in the FTSE