UPDATE: EXPANSION OF ‘GET ON BOARD’ EDUCATION PROGRAM
We have expanded the ‘Get on Board’ Education Program for 2011 to include Mississauga as a new location. The CBDC ‘Get on Board’ Education Program prepares diverse individuals for Board service on public, not-for-profit and private organizations. Founding Members are eligible for our discounted fees. Please visit our website at www.boarddiversity.ca for a complete listing of Founding Members and to register for the ‘Get on Board’ Program.
NEW SPONSORS FOR ‘GET ON BOARD’
CBDC is pleased to welcome Xstrata Nickel as the sponsor of the Introductory Series of the ‘Get on Board’ Program. We also thank Deloitte for their sponsorship of the Advanced Series. If you are interested in sponsorship of the Intermediate Series, please contact Pamela Jeffery at
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KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE CBDC 2010 ANNUAL REPORT CARD
- 15% of respondents identify themselves as females
- 17% of respondents identified themselves as Chair of the Board and only 10% of them were females
- Board representation of visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and Aboriginal peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, is even lower. Only 5.3% self reported as visible minorities while 2.9% self identified as persons with disabilities and 0.8% indicated they were Aboriginal.
- Despite these figures, 62% of respondents felt that their Board was diverse.
- There appears to be a dichotomy between Board Directors’ personal opinions regarding the importance of diversity on a Board compared to the Board’s actual commitment to instituting a diversity policy. The survey found that 85% of respondents consider diversity to be important. In contrast, when asked whether the board they serve on has a written diversity policy, 68% reported that they do not, and 66% felt that their board should not develop or adopt a formal diversity policy.
Download the full report at www.boarddiversity.ca
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FIRST CBDC ANNUAL REPORT CARD RELEASED
In October, the CBDC successfully launched our first ever Annual Report Card. This was the culmination of an extensive research initiative in which surveys were sent to 2,912 FP500 Directors. The results provide a baseline measure of the representation of women, visible minority groups, persons with disabilities and Aboriginal peoples on FP 500 Boards.
This Report Card was widely distributed to the business community as well as the general public. All FP500 Directors in Canada received a Report Card. As well, a 4-page colour insert was distributed with 300,000 subscriber copies of The Globe and Mail and 50,000 subscriber copies of La Presse.
The media coverage following the launch was tremendous, with profile in national and regional newspapers, on CBC radio news and other radio channels, and on television, including CTV news and OMNI. The report reached a strong business audience and delivered the message about the need to evolve Board policies and recruitment processes to attract the best and most diverse talent in Canada.
REVIEW: WOMEN MATTER 2010 REPORT
McKinsey & Company recently released their Women Matter 2010 Report. Their focus is on the correlation between women leaders’ contribution and companies’ performance. In their previous 2007 study, their report examined whether there is a link between a company’s performance and the proportion of women within their governing body. Their second series, Women Matter 2 in 2008, identified the leadership styles women tend to have. In 2009, McKinsey & Company took a sample of 800 business leaders worldwide. The report focused on which women leadership behaviours are suited to perform well in companies.
This year’s study primarily focuses on how to achieve gender diversity by supporting diversity through specific measures, such as CEO support. The study examines companies who suggest diversity is in their organization’s priority and which measures of gender diversity they support. Not surprisingly, many companies who identified gender diversity as a top priority had very measures in place for increasing the diversity of their workplace.
Companies which had gender diversity in their top three priorities implemented five measures on average[1]. Moreover, their survey results showed that the most effective measures are CEO commitment and women’s development programs. Therefore, CEO endorsement and visible monitoring has a significance effect on women representation. Click Here for the Full Report
TAKING THE MESSAGE OF BOARD DIVERSITY TO FP500 NOMINATING CHAIRS
The CBDC plans a series of face to face Roundtable Discussions with Nominating Chairs of FP500 companies beginning in early 2011.
During these Roundtables, co-sponsored by Ernst & Young, Nominating Chairs who have successfully improved diversity on their boards will share their board diversity best practices including the specific steps their boards undertook to improve diversity.
We will also share the detailed findings from the ARC and offer tools to help these board decision makers strategically select diverse board members. Our over-riding objective is to work with board decision makers to develop concrete and implementable diversity policies at the board level
CBDC FOUNDER GOES TO WASHINGTON
On November 10, 2010, CBDC Founder, Pamela Jeffery attended a by invitation only roundtable on Board Diversity hosted by Corporate Women Directors International and the International Finance Corporation in Washington, D.C. This event brought together corporate executives, stock exchange officers, governance experts, government officials, human rights commissioners, institutional shareholders, board directors and researchers from around the world. Pamela presented an overview of the CBDC and our Annual Report Card, and the response was resoundingly positive.
Here is a snapshot of what other jurisdictions are doing in the area of Board Diversity:
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Figures from 2009 show that 66% of the Top 100 and 84% of listed companies have no female Directors. Women held 8.3% of seats on Top 200 and 3.5% of seats overall. The Australian Stock Exchange set up a Corporate Governance Council comprise of 21 member organizations including the Directors Institute, the Diversity Council of Australia. The ASX created guidelines, to take effect January 1 2011, requiring companies to report the number of women at three levels: Board of Directors, senior management, and workforce. Companies will be required to disclose, in their Annual Reports, the progress made in achieving their gender diversity objectives. This Diversity Council recommended that listed companies who choose not to disclose their progress be required to state why they are not doing so. Companies will also have to include consideration of “diversity criteria” when reviewing the skills of the Board and recruiting new Board members. (Presented by Giri Tenneti, Education Executive, Australian Stock Exchange)
Finland. In 2003, Finland was the first country to have a Corporate Governance Code suggesting that the age and gender mix be taken into account in the composition of the board. The Code was updated in 2008 and more explicitly states that both genders should be represented on the board. In 2010, all Finnish companies must have at least one woman on its board of directors. If a company does not comply with the recommendation, it must explain why. The expectation in Finland is that companies are reluctant to depart from the Code due to the negative publicity they may receive for noncompliance. By March 2010, the percentage of boards with at least one women rose to 59% from 51% in 2008. (Presented by Leena Linnainmaa, Member of the Finnish Corporate Governance Commission. For more information, visit www.eva.fi.)
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