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Women on board: Beyond Quotas?
Val Myteberi
Program Director, The Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center
on Corporate Governance - Cardozo School of Law
55 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003
Macro Level U.S.A.
• Shareholder activism has
increasingly focused on:
• Board performance
• Quality of oversight
• Right of shareholders to replace
underperforming directors
Why Diversity?
• No bright-line tests for QUALITY of oversight:
• Research indicates that board quality is complex and
nuanced and depends as much on interpersonal
dynamics as individual skills and experience.
• Diversity as a means of increasing financial
performance and generating long-term value
for shareholders.
Why Diversity?
• Correlation between gender diversity and company
financial strength:
• Catalyst
• Columbia University
• Credit Suisse
• Deloitte
• McKinsey & Company
• The Committee for Economic Development
• Thompson Reuters
Institutional Investors – Public Pension Funds ($3 Trillion)
• NY State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF)
• NY City Pension Funds
• California Public Employees’ Retirement System
(CalPERS)
• California State Teachers’ Retirement System
(CalSTRS)
• Florida State Board of Administration
• Etc.
Actions• Collaboration
• Engagement
• Providing Resources
• Leading by example (Chief Diversity
Officer)
• City/State Contracts
Engagement
• Private dialogue
• Shareholder resolutions
• Proxy Access campaigns
• Example: Boardroom Accountability Project
by Comptroller Scott Stringer, New York
Attacking Process & Procedure
• Proxy Access since Fall 2014:
• Shareholders’ right to make their own board nominations.
• Comptroller Stringer – 75 proxy access shareholder proposals to
request a bylaw to give large shareholder (3% / 3Y threshold) the
right to list their candidates on a company’s ballot.
• Bank of America, Citigroup, EQT Corp., Staples etc. are agreeing
to adopt proxy access and amending their bylaws.
• Total of 16 companies have agreed to support meaningful proxy
access.
• EBay Inc. has hired two women to its board since January, bowing
to pressure, agreeing to “institutionalize a commitment” to
diversity.
Investors - Asset Managers($1.2 Trillion)
• Gender Lens Investing
• Access to capital for women entrepreneurs
and businesses.
• Investment that promote gender equality in
workplace.
• Investment that increase the number of
products and services that benefit women.
Investors - Asset Managers
• The Parity Portfolio – The Matterhorn Group,
Morgan Stanley:
• Highest financial standards: The Portfolio starts with
a Gender Lens but companies have to withstand the
rigorous financial analysis of portfolio managers.
• Sparking creativity in their Portfolio companies –
Biogen, Cambridge, MA with “Raising the Bar:
Women on Board” initiative.