About Us
We are a boutique Board advisory firm who – like our neighbours – aspire to provide clients with a hand-crafted service.
Putting down roots
We are proud to have been part of Borough Market since 2002. We renovated our second home in the market in 2024 in partnership with the Trustees – the converted lateral warehouse above the iconic Neal’s Yard Dairy now provides a vibrant base for our team and a distinctive meeting space for our clients.
Living to learn
Curiosity is a defining quality of effective Board members – and one we strive to reflect in our own work. We approach each mandate as an opportunity to learn, and that same mindset has shaped a range of research partnerships and publications.
30% Club
We recently partnered with the 30% Club on a landmark study that evidenced the contribution of gender balance to Board effectiveness.
Using the Lintstock Index, we tracked the engagement of male and female Directors, breaking open the black box of Board interaction to construct an analysis underpinned by information rather than anecdote.
APPCGG
We have served as research advisor to the UK All Party Parliamentary Corporate Governance Group for over a decade.
We report on a wide range of issues from Hedge Fund Engagement with PLCs to People Oversight. We launched our latest study, entitled ‘Lessons from Boards over 20 Years’, in Parliament in January 2025.
Almost a sole focus on the Board: Making wine
Lintstock purchased its first small vineyard in 2008, allowing the team, friends and family to harvest and finish along with other ‘garage’ winemakers. We also collaborated with Château Lynch-Bages on three vintages and will be blending our first Rioja next year.
Our Riesling has long served as a house favourite at Wright Bros Oyster House - sales revenues are donated to charity.
Almost a sole focus on the Board: Giving back
Lintstock is pleased to support the Boards of a number of leading charities, including The National Gallery, Prostate Cancer, Save the Children and Women for Women International.
We host a Charity Casino Night each June, where our clients can win a Lintstock donation to their favourite charities.
Guiding Principles
One of our founding principles in 2002 was that ‘we only work with clients who are prepared to accept unbiased and objective advice’. This is equally applicable today.
It is hard to imagine a more discerning buyer of advisory services than a Board. Sometimes, however, our advice will be uncomfortable to hear, and may run contrary to the interests of one or more individuals who serve on the Board; our review might cause people to leave.
Although we have lost individual mandates as a result of our approach, over the longer term this has driven our organic growth, as Directors recognise good advice. Chairs who have left Boards as a result of our reviews have become long-standing clients elsewhere.
That said, our review should never surprise a Board, not least because we ensure that perspectives are well socialised with stakeholders throughout the exercise. We work in partnership with clients to ensure joint ownership of recommendations, and we consider transparency to be a necessary precursor to effecting change.
It is for client Boards to weigh the benefits of longevity against any perceived impact on independence or the freshness of advice. Our view is that the length of client relationships ought to have no bearing on independence, although we do regularly rotate the client review team.
In terms of structural factors undermining independence, it is easier to offer objective counsel when unencumbered by financial dependence on any one client — no single client accounts for more than 3% of Lintstock’s annual revenues.
Lintstock will disclose the skills and experience of each individual involved in the review, and can provide appropriate references specific to the team proposed and organisation type (e.g. sector or market cap). There must be alignment of expectation between the client and the evaluator with regard to quality, value and longevity of service.
There is relatively little scope for a conflict of interests given that our overwhelming focus is the provision of Board reviews — we do not offer consulting services on the outcomes of our reviews. Clients are made aware of any existing commercial relationships, as well as perceived or actual conflicts which might arise in the course of our work.
In terms of other services, we provide an MAR compliance tool and support certain Board review-related internal exercises, such as reviews of CEO leadership, strategy sessions, internal and external audit, and stakeholder perception. These are ancillary services and are not material (i.e. less than 10% of annual revenue) in the context of the overall business.
Our other guiding principles from 2002 — namely that ‘our advice is bespoke: we approach each assignment without prejudging the needs of the client’ and that ‘we are perfectionist and meticulous in everything we do’ — have also served us well.
It is important that Directors feel that they can trust Lintstock and raise matters in confidence without the fear that such information will be attributable to them. Lintstock is well versed in dealing with circumstances in which the anonymity of individuals risks being compromised, and manages such information accordingly.
Ensuring that high standards of privacy and data security are maintained is a paramount consideration; our approach is detailed in depth in our Privacy Notice.
As part of our ongoing commitment to clients, we undertake to remain available to the Board to discuss agreed outcomes arising from the review for up to 12 months within the scope of our advisory mandate.
We also often facilitate introductions between our clients (e.g. Chair to Chair) to promote the sharing of best practices or to discuss similar challenges which arise between Boards.
As part of accepting our unbiased and objective advice, clients must be open to being challenged by Lintstock, and recognise that the review is not a compliance or assurance exercise. We also expect the full cooperation of clients — including in terms of providing access to the materials and individuals necessary to discharge our mandates — in order to ensure the integrity of the process.
Any client disclosure relating to the outcomes of the review is to be agreed with Lintstock, and ought to detail the appointment process and the methodology followed.
