A group of 11 pension and union funds with a collective $750 billion in assets has picked up the mantle [on board diversity in small and mid-size companies]. Called the Midwest Investor Diversity Initiative, the group, which includes the United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office and the Ohio Public…
Category: board diversity
Intercontinental Exchange Launches NYSE Board Advisory Council to Advance Board Diversity – Bloomberg
This announcement from the NYSE about a new program to support board diversity undermines its own credibility from the start by referring to the member CEOs’ “own personal networks” as the way to find directors. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), announced the launch of the NYSE…
Corporate Board Practices in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500: 2019 Edition | The Conference Board
Corporate governance has undergone a profound transformation in the last two decades, as a result of the legislative and regulatory changes that have expanded director responsibilities as well as the rise of more vocal shareholders. Yet the composition of the board of directors has not changed as rapidly as other governance practices, and to this…
Why Can’t Boards Achieve Diversity?
Here is the lede from this WSJ article: “A stubborn paradox reigns across U.S. boardrooms: Companies are appointing more women to board seats than ever, yet the overall share of female directors is barely budging.” In comments to the WSJ, the managing director for corporate governance research at the Conference Board indicated that, in “the…
Illinois Takes Steps Toward Adopting a California-Like Board Diversity Bill
Some of Illinois’ largest companies would have to take a critical look at who’s calling the shots in their boardrooms if a bill making its way through Springfield becomes reality. The legislation, which narrowly passed the House last month, would require any publicly traded company with an Illinois headquarters to have at least one woman…
Google Shareholders and Workers Call on Board to Fix ‘Diversity Crisis’ – Bloomberg
Over the past year, employees at Alphabet Inc.’s Google have protested over worker rights, a military contract, and the handling of sexual misconduct. Now, along with shareholders, they’ve written a resolution [filed by Zevin Asset Management] to Alphabet’s board, calling for reform in areas including racial and gender diversity, and asking the board to consider…
Diversity Thresholds: How Social Norms, Visibility, and Scrutiny Relate to Group Composition | Academy of Management Journal
Analyses of S&P 1500 boards reveal that significantly more boards include exactly two women (the descriptive social norm) than would be expected by chance. This overrepresentation of two-women boards–a phenomenon we call “twokenism”–is more pronounced among more visible companies, consistent with our theorizing around impression management and scrutiny. Experimental data corroborate these findings and provide…
Looking at wealth management through a “gender lens”
Andrew Behar, head of As You Sow, a San Francisco Bay-area shareholders advocacy group, said putting women in positions of power is simply good for business.“It really creates a better culture that’s going to reduce risk. That’s going to attract the best and the brightest talent,” he said.Behar’s organization offers a free online tool that…
Corporate boards are diversifying. The C-suite isn’t. – The Washington Post
Large companies — those worth $5 billion or more — appointed nearly three times as many women as men to their boards of directors during the second and third quarters last year, showing just how eager they are to diversify their governance teams and comply with mounting pressure for equality. “The more women board directors…
Canadian Pension Steps Up Gender Board Diversity Advocacy | Chief Investment Officer
The C$368.3 billion ($270.6 billion) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is looking to improve the gender balance of public company boards with its new Global Gender Diversity Voting Practice. Under the new policy, CPPIB will vote against the chair responsible for director nominations at the public companies it invests in if the board has…
