New best-practice guidance on board diversity has been published by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN). The new guidance is designed to recognise that a range of social and economic factors contribute to a fully diverse board beyond gender diversity.
It calls for companies to develop board diversity objectives and for shareholders to hold boards accountable and encourage diversity with their own board nominees.
Nomination committees, the guidance says, should, when identifying candidates to recommend for board appointment/election, consider diversity criteria; engage independent external advisers to search for candidates that meet the board’s skills and diversity criteria; and aim to have at least one-third of the board made up of one gender.
The UK Parker Review Committee, meanwhile, has published a consultation into the ethnic diversity of UK boards, with recommendations to increase the number of BME (black and minority ethnic) representatives on British boards.
It calls for each FTSE 100 board to have at least one BME director by 2021, and each FTSE 250 board to have at least one BME director by 2024.