Insights
Boyden: After Pressure, All-Male Boards Have Now Vanished From S&P 500
Boyden was recently featured in Bloomberg about how Monolithic Power Sytems Inc. added a female director last month, ending the power-management company’s three-month run as the only S&P 500 member with an all-male board. The appointment of Carintia Martinez, chief information officer at European aerospace company Thales Alenia Space SAS, caps a year-long search for a company that hadn’t had a woman on the board since 2016.
Investors such as Blackrock Inc. and State Street Global Advisors have been voting against directors of all-male boards for several years. Since last year’s murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, investors and advocates have started pressing corporate boards about racial diversity as well.
Alicia Hasell, managing partner at executive recruiter Boyden, said,
“They are under huge pressure, and it is driven not only by institutional investors, but also by employees and customers. There is too much diverse talent that is board-ready, so companies no longer have an excuse to maintain that position.”
The article highlights the following:
- Fifteen companies increased the number of women on their boards; the companies included Walt Disney Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
- Thirty-two companies reduced the number of women directors; they included Eli Lilly & Co., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
- The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index returned 3.6% in May, outperforming the MSCI World Index, which gained 1.5%.