Respondents were asked: ‘What would help improve board diversity at US companies in general?’ Many mention regulatory requirements, tenure limits and expanding the pool of director candidates by looking for individuals from non-traditional backgrounds.
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‘Investor mandates; stock exchange/regulatory support’
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‘Promoting women and visible minorities by men who identify as a woman or as a visible minority’
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‘Expanding board sizes’
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‘A regulatory mandate’
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‘More frequent turnover at the board level’
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‘Remove blinders and take a chance on appointing directors with non-traditional backgrounds. Look for experience/skills that are translatable to the corporate boardroom’
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‘More C-suite diversity – boards are just repurposed C-suite folks’
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‘Mandatory retirement policies, mandatory diversity targets’
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‘Free directories of candidates including diversity candidates so [the] board can find diverse candidates who also meet required business criteria’
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‘Greater representation of women and minorities in senior management roles’
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‘Education in unconscious bias’
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‘A willingness to seek people with different skill-set backgrounds, and not be fixated on typical backgrounds’
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‘Quotas’
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‘Legal requirement to improve, with measurable targets at specific intervals’
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‘Limiting the number of terms a member can serve at the board thus opening space to nominating new members based on diversity requirements’
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‘Broader understanding that there are diverse candidates who are fully qualified and how to find them. Broader understanding that diversity is associated with improved corporate performance and strategic decision-making. Broader understanding that diversity and related reporting can reduce the cost of capital’
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‘Regulatory requirements’
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‘Broad adoption of [the] Rooney Rule and expanding pool of director candidates to include non-C-suite executives and executives with less traditional backgrounds’
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‘Board diversity is actually cognitive diversity, I would say. It brings various perspectives and ideas and thoughtful discussion takes place’
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‘Looking for directors who are not CEOs or former CEOs’
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‘The combination of regulation from government, regulation from bourses and the bully pulpit of media and social media seems to be having its desired effect. I can’t recommend anything else (and frankly find the above three mechanisms to be heavy-handed and anti-market) at this time’
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‘Tone from the top and interest from investors to increase diversity’
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‘Incentivizing companies to have more women and minorities on the board. Recent rule changes at Nasdaq should help further promote companies to add women and minorities to boards’