Diversity drive stalls at top company boards
The drive for UK companies to diversify their boards and senior managers is struggling, according to recent data.
The number of new female directors at top UK companies has fallen, according to the UK Spencer Stuart Board Index, an analysis of the top 150 FTSE companies carried out by headhunter Spencer Stuart. A total of 49% of new directors were women, compared to 51% in 2023 and 60% in 2022.
However, 71% of boards had at least one woman as chair, senior independent director, chief executive or chief finance officer, up from 60% in 2023. Overall, 24% of these roles were held by women.
The data also revealed that the proportion of ethnic minority directors has fallen slightly from 13% to 12.5%. The government-commissioned Parker Review set a target for every FTSE 350 company to have at least one board director from an ethnic minority by the end of 2024, but Spencer Stuart’s sample found that 11 of the top 150 firms had not achieved this.
The study showed that 42% of ethnic minority directors were UK nationals, 26% were from the US, 12% were Canadian and 9% were Indian.