Heidrick & Struggles: Boardroom Trends to Watch

The Fortune 500 board appointments for 2014 shed light on trends surrounding “board refreshment”, including issues of age, length of service, diversity, independence, and industry experience. 

Heidrick & Struggles’ 2014 Board Monitor report revealed four major trends. They are:

1. CEOs and CFOs claim two-thirds or more of appointments. CEOs dropped from 55% to 47% and CFO’s share rose to 20%.
2. The core industry experience. The top three areas of industry experience among new board members are financial services, industrial, and consumer sectors.
3. Accelerating progress for women in boardrooms. Of the 339 new directors appointed in 2014, 99 were women, representing 29.2% of the total.  A rise from 25.9% in 2013 and 22.8% in 2012.
4. A mixed picture of diversity. The percentage of new appointments dropped for African Americans and Asians and remained the same for Hispanics.

The full report is published on Heidrick & Struggles website. Read the full report.