1 in 3 Tech CEOs Don't Think Gender Diversity Is Important

By Valentina Zarya, FORTUNE

According to a new survey.

It will take more than four decades for corporate boards to reach a 50-50 gender split — but do CEOs care?

The short answer: Only some of them do, at least according to new research by insight platform Qualtrics and theBoardlist, a “marketplace” for female board candidates.

Read the story here.

GAO Publishes Report on Gender Diversity of Corporate Boards

Morrison & Foerster LLP, Lexology

On December 3, 2015, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published its report analyzing the history of gender diversity of U.S. corporate boards and provided recommendations for improving female board representation. The report indicates that, following current trends, it could take 10 years for women to comprise 30% of board positions and more than 40 years for representation of women to be equal to men. In 2014, when the data was collected for the report, women comprised approximately half of the U.S. workforce, but only held approximately 16% of board seats of S&P 1500 companies, which represented an 8% increase from 1997. The report identifies three key factors that help to explain why female representation on boards has only grown incrementally in recent years. First, rather than prioritizing diversity, boards tend to rely on personal networks to identify potential new candidates for election. Second, boards often choose candidates from a “traditional pipeline,” which includes former members of boards or those with CEO experience. To increase female candidacies for board positions, the report suggests that boards expand searches beyond the traditional pipeline, and perhaps set voluntary targets for diversity. Third, the report cites the relatively small number of vacant board seats that are open each year (only approximately 4% of board positions are filled by new directors each year).

Read the story here.

New Alliance for Board Diversity Report Finds Little Change in Diversity on Corporate Boards

WASHINGTON, DC (May 2, 2011)—Collectively, women and minorities lost ground in America’s corporate boardrooms between 2004 and 2010, according to Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards—2010 Alliance for Board Diversity Census. Six years after the first ABD Census, this report shows that white men still overwhelmingly dominate corporate boards with few overall gains for minorities and a significant loss of seats for African-American men. In the Fortune 100, between 2004 and 2010, white men increased their presence, adding 32 corporate board seats, while African-American men lost 42, and women—particularly minority women—did not see an appreciable increase in their share of board seats. In the Fortune 500, which is included in this year’s report as well, the overwhelming majority of seats were held by white men.
The study was compiled by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), a collaboration of five leading organizations—Catalyst, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP), and The Prout Group, Inc.
“With so many qualified women and minority candidates available for board service, it is staggering to find that no real progress has been made in the past six years to advance minorities and women into the boardroom,” said Ilene H. Lang, Chair of ABD and President and CEO of Catalyst. “Research has shown that diverse teams produce better results. In particular, Catalyst research revealed that more diverse boards, on average, are linked with better financial performance. Corporate America has the opportunity to seize the advantage that a more diverse board can yield in this increasingly competitive global economy.”
Key findings from this report include:
In the Fortune 100, between 2004 and 2010:
Men still dominated boardrooms. In 2010 they held 82.0 percent of board seats; in 2004, 83.1 percent.
White men have actually increased their share of board seats in corporate America—from 71.2 to 72.9 percent. Minorities and women shared the remainder, with very few seats occupied by Asian Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, or minority women in particular. With the exception of African-American men, who lost seats, the percentages have not changed notably since 2004.
More specifically, African-American women held 2.1 percent of seats; Hispanic women held 0.9 percent; Asian Pacific Islander women held 0.5 percent; African-American men held 4.2 percent; Hispanic men held 3.1 percent; and Asian Pacific Islander men held 1.7 percent.
Although women gained 16 board seats—7 occupied by minority women—the overall 1.1 percentage point increase over 6 years was not appreciable.
In 2010, the ABD expanded its research to include companies in the Fortune 500.
Fortune 500 boards were less diverse than Fortune 100 boards.
Men held close to 85 percent of all board seats. White men dominated the board room, holding 77.6 percent of board seats. Minority men held 6.8 percent. White women held 12.7 percent. Minority women held 3.0 percent.
More specifically, African-American women held 1.9 percent of Fortune 500 board seats; Hispanic women held 0.7 percent; Asian Pacific Islander women held 0.3 percent; African-American men held 2.7 percent; Hispanic men held 2.3 percent; and Asian Pacific Islander men held 1.8 percent.
Approximately one-half of Fortune 500 company boards were composed of 20 percent or fewer women and/or minorities.
Women and minorities were significantly underrepresented in Fortune 500 board leadership positions. White men held 94.9 percent of board chair positions.
There was not a single Latina lead director or board chair.
In 2010, 15 companies achieved broad board diversity: each of the major U.S. Census groups was represented in their boardrooms.
For more information on this study and the Alliance for Board Diversity, please visit www.theabd.org, or ABD member websites: Catalyst: www.catalyst.org; Susan Nierenberg, snierenberg@catalyst.org, (646) 388-7744 The Executive Leadership Council® (ELC): www.elcinfo.com; Michael Dutton, mdutton@elcinfo.com, 703-517-3550The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR): www.hacr.org; Mostafa Abdelguelil, MAbdelguelil@hacr.org, (202) 682-4012 Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP): www.leap.org; Rima Matsumoto, rmatsumoto@leap.org, (202) 412-4190The Prout Group, Inc: www.proutgroup.com; Betsy Bruening, bbruening@proutgroup.com, (216) 771-2258
METHODOLOGY The Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) utilizes a Census methodology. The ABD Census counts Fortune 500 board directors to provide an accurate measurement of the representation and progress of women and minorities in business leadership and to allow for comparable statistics from year to year.
ABD Census analyses are based on companies on the Fortune 500 list published on May 3, 2010. ABD examined Fortune 500 companies because they are recognized and serve as the most influential businesses in the United States, ranked by revenue each year.
THE ALLIANCE FOR BOARD DIVERSITY Founded in 2004, the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) is a collaboration of four leadership organizations: Catalyst, The Executive Leadership Council, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. The Prout Group, Inc., an executive search firm, is a founding partner of the alliance and serves as advisor and facilitator. The groups have a common goal to enhance shareholder value by promoting inclusion of women and minorities on corporate boards.
ADDENDUM: Quotes from Alliance for Board Diversity members: CEOs of Catalyst, ELC, HACR, LEAP, and The Prout Group, Inc.
“Both the ABD Census and the Catalyst Census underscore the unacceptable lack of women in general—and minority women even more so—in the corporate boardroom,” said Ilene H. Lang, Chair of ABD and President and CEO of Catalyst. “At a time when restoring shareholder value and overall confidence in the economy are at the forefront of our nation’s attention, companies can ill afford to ignore what Catalyst research has shown—that significant financial gains can be made when women are present in greater numbers on the boards of U.S. corporations.” "Few will debate that inclusion and the diversity of thinking that it brings to business challenges creates real shareholder value," said Arnold W. Donald President and CEO of ELC. "That's why the decline in the collective presence of underrepresented groups on the boards of America’s largest corporations as reported in this study is more than a little concerning. We at ELC together with our ABD partners plan to make a meaningful contribution in helping America's corporations address this missed opportunity."
“Companies that want to achieve success in a global marketplace need a board that reflects the communities in which they do business as well as the population overall. Ensuring Hispanic representation on their board of directors and in the executive suite is essential to achieving this diversity,” said HACR President & CEO Carlos F. Orta. “HACR’s goal is to increase Hispanic presence on corporate boards and executive staffs, which will help to identify best practices in the area of corporate responsibility. “
“While Asian and Pacific Islander (API) representation on corporate boards has increased over the past decade, APIs are still woefully underrepresented in leadership roles,” said J.D. Hokoyama, LEAP President and CEO. “As part of our ongoing efforts to achieve full participation for APIs, LEAP’s multi-pronged approach of developing people through our leadership development programs; measuring representation through LEAP research; and informing society at large through multiple venues including our reports and key partnerships like ABD are helping to further empower our communities in addressing this critical issue.”
“We were disappointed with the results from the latest ABD report,” said Pat Prout, President & CEO of The Prout Group, Inc. “From a search firm perspective, we know that nominating committees often desire diversity when considering board candidates. It is evident, however, that they are not getting it.”

http://theabd.org/Women%20and%20Minorities%20Lose%20Ground%20on%20Fortune%20500%20Corporate%20Boards,%20Alliance%20for%20Board%20Diversity%20Census%20Shows.html

Corporate boards earn a "D" for diversity

By Patricia Sellers

May 2, 2011, 7:37 am

When I started my career at Fortune in 1984, corporate America was a land of white men. As I say in my talks about women and power, bosses back then were white men without facial hair.
We've come a long way—just look at Fortune's Most Powerful Women list.
But a new report on Fortune 500 board composition, released by the Alliance for Board Diversity this morning, should make diversity champions weep.
The boards of America's biggest corporations are getting whiter. At the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500, African-Americans held 4.2% of the total board seats in 2010. That's down from 7.8% in 2004.
In the six years that passed, African-American men lost 42 board seats in 2010. That's down from 7.8% in 2004.

Full Story: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/02/corporate-boards-earn-a-d-for-diversity/

SENATOR MENENDEZ ISSUES RESULTS OF MAJOR FORTUNE 500 DIVERSITY SURVEY

US Senator Robert Menendez

REULTS OF MENENDEZ'S MAJOR FORTUNE 500 DIVERSITY SURVEY: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES ON CORPORATE BOARDS STILL LAGS FAR BEHIND NATIONAL POPULATION

Minorities represent 14.5% of corporate boards; women 18%. One of most successful corporate diversity surveys ever -- 219 of Fortune 500 responded; 71 of Fortune 100.
August 4, 2010

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Democratic Task Force and the lone Hispanic Senator, today unveiled the results of his survey on women and minority representation among the senior management of Fortune 500 companies, as well as their use of minority and women-owned businesses in the contracting and procurement process. The survey found that women and minority representation on corporate boards continues to lag far behind the national population percentages. Menendez's survey was one of the most successful of its kind, garnering input from 219 corporations on the Fortune 500 list and 71 on the Fortune 100 list.
The study found minorities to represent a total of 14.5% of directors on corporate boards and overall have less representation on executive teams than they do on corporate boards. Hispanics are least proportionately represented on boards and fared even worse on executive teams. They comprise 3.28% of board members and and 2.90% on executive teams, about one-fifth of the 15% they represent in the U.S. population. Among minority groups, African Americans have the highest representation on boards compared to their population, but saw greatest decline in representation from boards to executive management teams, from 8.77% to 4.23%. Women on the other hand fared better on executive teams than on corporate boards, with 18.04% and 19.87% of representation respectively, but these figures still represent less than one-half of their proportion of the national population.
Senator Menendez and others also offered concrete recommendations, including the creation of a task force with select corporations, executive search firms, board members, and other experts to help companies move in this direction.
“As Chair of the Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force, one of my top priorities has always been promoting and expanding diversity at all levels of our economic, political and social sectors, and the basic understanding that has resulted from this survey will help guide us in doing so," said Senator Menendez. "This report clearly confirms what we had suspected all along – that American corporations need to do better when it comes to having the board rooms on Wall Street reflect the reality on Main Street. We need to change the dynamic and make it commonplace for minorities to be part of the American corporate structure. It is not just about doing what’s right, but it’s a good business decision that will benefit both corporations and the communities they’re tapping into and making investments in. That’s why I’m offering my recommendations and to work one-on-one with companies who want to move those numbers and company executives who want to make a difference in the community.”
“At the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) as an organization that represents more than 200 local Hispanic Chambers across the United States, and speaks for 3 million small and minority-owned businesses throughout the nation, we believe that embracing diversity is not just the right thing to do, but is a smart business decision. To us, diversity is not an abstract concept – we measure success by the qualified Hispanic employees hired, developed, advanced and flourishing with their corporate employers and we applaud Senator Menendez’s leadership in holding corporate America accountable to their commitments to diversity.” Said Javier Palomarez, President & CEO of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“A diverse workforce is critical to providing the best service to our global clients, supporting our business initiatives and creating a workplace environment that promotes respect and fairness,” said Jose Manuel Souto, Chief Financial Officer for Visa in Latin America.

Full Announcement: http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=e8a1d85f-b9f9-4cb2-97dc-0c724f0a1ed2

Bad Corporate News Finds Few Women on Board

Womensenews
Run Date: 12/18/08
By Saabira Chaudhuri
WeNews correspondent

The outpouring of bad U.S. corporate news has produced a news gallery of mainly male faces. There's a matching shortage of women on corporate boards, although Rupert Murdoch did tap opera singer Natalie Bancroft for News Corporation last year.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Headlines with the word bailout or economic crisis don't cast any glory, but they do show who's mainly in charge of U.S. big business.
And the answer is men.
Rick Wagoner heads up General Motors, the Detroit giant on the brink of bankruptcy. Edward Liddy is top executive at American International Group, which found itself at the epicenter of the home loan crisis. Bernard L. Madoff is the manager of a fictional fund dazzling and shaking onlookers by the sheer magnitude--$50 billion--of its losses.
Beneath the news surface, that same male domination is found on corporate boards, which are required to keep companies on the right track.
Look, for instance, at the automakers now in the limelight as they struggle for public help. Women comprise less than 17 percent of directors.
Women's presence on the corporate boards of the Fortune 500--an annual ranking by the magazine of the country's leading companies--inched up in the first four years of this decade.
But over the past three years that progress stagnated, with the composition of women in those influential and high-status posts reaching 14 percent and apparently refusing to budge, according to surveys conducted by Catalyst, the New York nonprofit research organization that focuses on women in business.
"The numbers are very low, but what I think is even more significant is that the increases have become trifling," says Sheila Wellington, clinical professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business, and former president of Catalyst.
Wellington says that, as in the early 1990s, many companies began taking the view that "women's advancement is a done deal; it's taken care of."
She points to the danger of tokenism. Many companies, she says, consider their boards diverse when they appoint a woman or two. For that reason it's important to continue disseminating hard data about representation.

Full Story: http://womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3861