Global Nominating Commission Launches Campaign to Raise Number of
Women on Boards Worldwide
NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Announced at
the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Global Institute this
spring, the WCD Global Nominating Commission has launched a
series of initiatives – beginning this fall and to be rolled out in
2013 – designed to improve board diversity worldwide. Co-chaired by
Myra Hart, Ann Korologos, and Maggie Wilderotter, the Commission is a
high-level task force of top board nominating chairs and committee
members, as well as CEOs, dedicated to actively building diverse
boards and candidate slates. In the first six months, the group has
grown rapidly, with 40 members representing six continents.
Along with debuting new board education seminars in early 2013 –
first in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and then moving on to other
cities – the Commission is today issuing its "Best Practices for
Director Selection and Development." The report comes out just
as Catalyst releases its 2012 Catalyst Census of Fortune
500 Women Board Directors, which reports that this year
women hold 16.6% of board seats of Fortune 500 companies, a number
unchanged from last year, and years previous.
Ilene H. Lang, president
and CEO of Catalyst and a member of the WCD Global Nominating
Commission, says: "Despite heightened conversation globally around
women's representation on corporate boards, the 2012 Catalyst
Census once again showed no change for the seventh consecutive year
– and the challenge is not lack of qualified women." She continues,
"our research also shows the advantage to companies when women gain
access to the boardroom. Catalyst hopes that by bringing
research-based data to the table, we can work together towards
gender diversity on corporate boards, which will enable companies
to benefit, finally, from the expertise of their talented women
leaders."
"Companies are becoming starkly aware of the push for diverse
boards from multiple stakeholders, including regulators, but they
need guidance on how to get there," says Susan Stautberg, a member of the Global
Nominating Commission and co-founder/co-chair of WCD.
"Our goal is to provide decision makers with a roadmap to build
diverse boards that are multi-gender, multi-skilled,
multi-national, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational. In order to
do this, WCD is creating partnerships with leading organizations
around the world such as Catalyst."
The Commission has developed Best Practices for Director
Selection and Development as a tool for nominating committees
and other influencers of board diversity. Produced by KPMG, it is
the first comprehensive resource to pull together best practices
for boosting diversity as well as links to:
- Articles and thought leadership about diverse boards and
governance practices;
- Research reports on the metrics and impact of diversity;
and
- Director databases and education tools.
"Ultimately, the goal is to improve governance, which is a vital
factor in helping organizations survive the current economic and
political uncertainty globally," says Ann
Korologos, a director of Harman International Industries,
Vulcan Materials, Host Hotels & Resorts, Kellogg, AMR Corp, and
American Airlines, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor. "New
mindsets are required for the multiplicity of challenges boards
face – so that we can think expansively and consider all the
opportunities."
"Think of our Commission in terms of a supply chain, and our
mission as ensuring that nominating committees have a ready pool of
great candidates for every type of board," says Maggie Wilderotter, chairman and CEO of Frontier
Communications (NASDAQ: FTR), and a director of Procter &
Gamble, Xerox, and Catalyst. "By streamlining the nominating
process, we speed the time it takes to get a great director on a
board, which makes it easier to nominate the next candidate. When
we reach the magic number of three diverse directors, I believe the
process will take on a life of its own at that company."
WomenCorporateDirectors has exploded in membership worldwide,
with new chapters opened in Cleveland, Finland, Japan, Milan,
New Zealand, and San Diego this fall, and plans for
Chile, Netherlands, Panama, Philippines, Rome, and Turkey in early 2013. The organization now
comprises more than 1,800 members serving on over 2,100 boards
worldwide. WCD issued a "Call to Action" at its inaugural Global
Institute in 2011 – calling on multiple stakeholders to do their
part in improving board diversity – and the Commission's recent and
upcoming activities mark the progress in shifting board
perspectives.
"As companies expand globally in their supplier networks,
employee bases, and customer markets, they need the new kind of
thinking that more diverse boards can bring," says Dr. Myra Hart, a director of Kraft Foods,
Nina McLemore, Inc., and the
Smithsonian Institution. "The Global Nominating Commission is
already helping companies think differently about the directors
they bring on who will help guide them into the next chapter of
their growth."
For more information about the Global Nominating
Commission and WomenCorporateDirectors, or to receive
a copy of the Best Practices report, please contact CEO
Davia Temin or Managing Director
Suzanne Oaks of Temin and
Company at 212-588-8788 or
news@temin.co.
About WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD)
WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) is the only global membership
organization and community of women corporate directors, comprised
of more than 1,800 members serving on over 2,100 boards in 49
chapters around the world. In 2012, WCD launched the Global
Nominating Commission, a high-level task force of select corporate
board nominating committee chairs and members from around the
world, as well as CEOs, focused on proactively building diverse
boards and candidate slates. Each year, WCD conducts a Global Board
Survey in conjunction with Heidrick & Struggles and researchers
from the Harvard Business School.
Heidrick & Struggles and KPMG are Global Founding Partners of
WCD.
WCD has 49 global chapters, located in Arizona, Atlanta, Beijing, Boston, Brazil, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colombia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Delhi, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gulf Co-operative Council,
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston, Indonesia, Israel,, Japan, London, Los
Angeles/Orange County,
Malaysia, Melbourne, Mexico, Milan,
Minnesota, Morocco,
Mumbai, New York, New
Zealand, Nigeria,
Northern California, Peru, Philadelphia, San
Diego, Seattle,
Shanghai, Singapore, South
Africa, South Florida,
Switzerland, Sydney, Tennessee, Toronto, and Washington DC. For more
information, visit www.womencorporatedirectors.com.
SOURCE WomenCorporateDirectors