U.S. public companies added the most diverse slate of new directors on record to their boards over the past year, with a surge of Black nominees and elevated numbers of women and first-time directors, according to two new studies.

The gains were uneven, with about half of public-company boards adding no new members and smaller companies lagging behind their bigger counterparts, according to one of the studies, from the Conference Board and data analytics firm ESGauge.

In addition, more companies of all sizes have started disclosing the racial and ethnic makeup of their boards. The second study, by executive and board recruiting firm Spencer Stuart, found that a third of new independent board members for S&P 500 companies identifying director demographics were Black, up from 11% the year before, and 7% were Latino, up from 3%. With the new arrivals, a little over three-quarters of S&P 500 board members were white and 70% were men, according to Spencer Stuart. It had released preliminary data earlier this year.

Newest Class of Corporate Directors Is the Most Diverse Yet, but Gains Are Uneven – WSJ