Company directors say their regulatory and compliance burdens are too high, and corporate governance principles should be relaxed to allow more risk-taking.

Speaking at the Financial Review Business Summit, Tanarra Capital head John Wylie said directors were “overwhelmed”, urging a culture of greater share ownership among directors.

Nicola Wakefield-Evans, a Future Fund guardian, said the compliance burden on directors had “maybe quadrupled” since she began sitting on major company boards.

But she said expecting directors to up their shareholdings would hurt diversity and discourage younger members.

“You can’t expect directors to spend all their fees on shares … Younger directors and women rely on their director fees as income. A lot of women don’t come to board roles having had significantly remunerative executive roles,” she said.

UniSuper’s John Pearce said the rapid disavowal of ESG and diversity initiatives in the United States following the election of President Donald Trump should be seen as a natural reaction against the post-GFC expansion of governance controls.

“It’s impossible to argue against DEI, and those are all things we should aspire to. But I think the current backlash is against superficial, virtue-signalling targets or quotas that don’t align with shareholders outcomes,” he said.