Women on Boards Vanessa Williams Managing Director, Awen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Women on Boards Vanessa Williams Managing Director, Awen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Dec 13, 2023 178 likes •395 views

Women on Boards Vanessa Williams Managing Director, Awen Consultants Limited Founder, Governance for Growth Director & Lawyer, Excello Law Limited AGENDA Personal background/perspective Information sources Where are we now

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Women on Boards

Vanessa Williams Managing Director, Awen Consultants Limited Founder, Governance for Growth Director & Lawyer, Excello Law Limited

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@Govgrowth

AGENDA

  • Personal background/perspective
  • Information sources
  • Where are we now – UK?
  • Where have we come from:
  • FTSE 100
  • FTSE 250
  • Comparison with Europe
  • What approaches can be taken?
  • The business case
  • What next?
  • Conclusion
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@Govgrowth

Personal Background/Perspective

  • Business Lawyer/Founder member of EWLA
  • Career as board member of London law firms
  • NED & Company Secretary, Women of the Year
  • NED & practising lawyer, Excello Law Limited
  • Managing Director, Awen Consultants Limited:
  • Business advisory
  • Investment facilitation
  • Governance for Growth
  • Author, Due Diligence: A Practical Guide
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@Govgrowth

Information Sources

  • Annual Female FTSE Report – latest version March 2015
  • Annual Davies Review on Women on Boards – latest version March

2015

  • Egon Zehnder 2014 European Diversity Analysis (covers companies

with min. market cap of € 4 billion or min. 5 largest companies in a country)

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@Govgrowth

Where are we now – UK?

  • Overview:
  • FTSE 100:
  • 23.5% women on boards
  • No all male boards
  • 263 women in total
  • FTSE 250:
  • 18% women on boards
  • 23 all male boards
  • 365 women in total
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@Govgrowth

Where have we come from – FTSE 100?

FTSE100keyfacts 2010/11 2015 Change 2010-2015 Representation ofwomenonFTSE 100 boards 12.5% 23.5% +11 percentage points Number of companies with 25%+ representation 12 41 +29 Total number of women on FTSE 100 boards 135 263 +128 NumberofwomenNon-Executive Directors 117(15.6%) 239(28.5%) +122 Number of women Executive Directors 18(5.5%) 24(8.6%) +6 Number of womenChairmen 2(2%) 3(3%) +1 Number of women Chief Executives 5(5%) 5(5%) unchanged Number of all-male boards 21

  • 21

Number of women appointments in the year 18 (out of 135) 52 (out of 164) +34 % of women appointments in the year 13.3% 31.7% +18.4 percentage points

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@Govgrowth

Where have we come from – FTSE 250?

FTSE250keyfacts 2010/11 2015 Change 2010-2015 Representation ofwomenonFTSE 250 boards 7.8% 18% +10.2 percentage points Number of companies with 25%+ representation 17 63 +46 Total number of women on FTSE 250 boards 154 365 +211 NumberofwomenNon-Executive Directors 127(9.6%) 340(23%) +213 Number of women Executive Directors 27(4.2%) 25(4.6%)

  • 2

Number of women Chairmen

  • 8
  • Number of women Chief Executives

10 9

  • 1

Number of all-male boards 131 23

  • 108

Number of women appointments in the year 19 74 (Out of 310) +55 % of women appointments in the year 13% 23.9% +10 percentage points

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@Govgrowth

How does this compare to Europe?

Companies % Boardpositions held bywomen Austria 6 10.7% Belgium 8 20.2% Denmark 8 20.2% Finland 6 32.1% France 58 28.5% Germany 44 16.6% Greece 6 9.9% Italy 19 20.2% Luxembourg 7 8.9% Netherlands 22 19.5% Norway 7 38.9% Portugal 6 5.2% Republic of Ireland 14 16.3% Spain 20 15.5% Sweden 21 27.5% Switzerland 34 13.9% United Kingdom 70 22.6% Europe Overall 356 20.3%

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@Govgrowth

How does this compare to Europe?

League table:

  • 1. Norway – 38.9%
  • 2. Finland – 32.1%
  • 3. France – 28.5%
  • 4. Sweden – 27.5%
  • 5. UK – 22.6%

Range: 5.2% - 38.9%

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@Govgrowth

What approaches have been taken?

  • Voluntary Targets
  • Central to UK approach: 25% target by 31.12.15
  • Supported by:
  • Voluntary Search Code – set of principles agreed by search firms
  • Changes in Corporate Governance Code – publish diversity policy and no. of women
  • Government requirement for narrative reporting: companies must disclose number of

women at different levels

  • Regular letters from government
  • Regular research reports naming companies
  • Peer pressure
  • Engagement with Chairmen
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@Govgrowth

What approaches have been taken?

  • Quotas
  • More than 20 countries have adopted
  • Norway first and most prominent
  • target 40%
  • non-compliant companies face being dissolved
  • 9% 2003 – 40% 2012
  • France also committed to quota: 40% by 2017
  • 7.2% 2004 – 28.5% 2014
  • Belgium target 33.3% by 2018
  • 23.4% 2015
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@Govgrowth

What approaches have been taken?

  • Corporate Transparency:
  • Reporting on gender policies and numbers of women:
  • EU non-financial reporting directive: large companies to disclose information about diversity
  • f boards
  • Australian Stock Exchange corporate governance code amended comply or explain policy to

include gender diversity

  • Ontario Securities Commission has proposed similar comply or explain requirements
  • UK Narrative Reporting Regulations 2013 require gender breakdown at board, senior

management and across workforce

  • EWLA has recommended more visible statistics in annual reports – 8th Congress, Zurich
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@Govgrowth

The Business Case

  • Micro-economic perspective:
  • Improved company performance:
  • McKinsey & Company: companies with most gender-diverse management

teams had 17 % higher stock price growth between 2005 and 2007 / their average operating profit was almost double the industry average between 2003 and 2005.

  • Catalyst: companies with more women on boards achieved 42 % higher

return in sales, 66 % higher return on invested capital and 53 % higher return

  • n equity.
  • A gender-balanced board is more likely to pay attention to managing and

controlling risk.

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@Govgrowth

The Business Case

  • Micro-economic perspective:
  • Mirroring the Market:
  • women control about 70 % of global consumer spending.
  • more women in management provide a broader insight in economic behaviour and

consumers’ choices, leading to market share gains through the creation of products and services more respondent to consumers’ needs and preferences.

  • Enhanced Quality of Decision-making:
  • Diversity boosts creativity and innovation by adding complementary knowledge, skills and

experience.

  • Diverse boards contribute to better performance because decisions are based on evaluating

more alternatives compared to homogenous boards.

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@Govgrowth

The Business Case

  • Micro-economic perspective:
  • Improved governance and ethics:
  • Various studies have shown that the quality of corporate governance and ethical

behaviour is high in companies with high proportions of women on boards.

  • Better use of talent pool:
  • More than half of students graduating are women.
  • By not including them in decision-making positions, female talent would be

underutilised and the quality of appointments may be compromised.

  • Systematically including suitable candidates of both sexes ensures that board

members are selected among the best distribution of both men and women.

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@Govgrowth

The Business Case

  • Macro-economic perspective:
  • Ageing population/shortage of skilled labour:
  • poor career prospects discourage women from continuing in paid employment -

puts increasing brake on economic growth.

  • absence of women in senior positions may trigger vicious cycles that further widen

both gender employment and gender pay gap.

  • Strong economies and sustainable pension systems:
  • will depend on higher female employment rates and high wage returns on paid jobs.
  • incentives needed for women to stay in workforce, including credible prospects of

career progress – includes opening door to top management positions.

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@Govgrowth

What Next?

  • Building pipeline of executive women – encourage women earlier

in careers

  • Change organisational culture – agile working, flexibility
  • Transparency within board appointment process – recruit from

wider pool e.g. entrepreneurs, lawyers, academics

  • Higher board turnover to create more opportunities – shorter

terms

  • Encourage champions of change within companies – Chair &

senior managers set culture

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@Govgrowth

What Next?

  • Encourage champions of change outside companies including

investors, pressure groups etc

  • Promote good practice amongst recruiters
  • Encourage social policies that support women e.g. shared parental

leave, tax credits for childcare

  • Training for women
  • Role models
  • Improve female confidence
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@Govgrowth

Conclusion

  • Quotas have had quickest impact
  • Voluntary regimes are progressing, if more slowly
  • There are clear social and economic benefits from getting women
  • n boards
  • It is becoming unacceptable to have male only boards
  • Change needs to continue
  • Diversity needs to be addressed in all its forms – this is just the

beginning

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@Govgrowth

Contact

Vanessa Williams: vwilliams.awenconsultants@yahoo.co.uk +44 (0) 7425 873 030 @iVJW @Govgrowth