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11 July, 2025

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Ethnic minority pipeline to FTSE100 boards rises; existing number falls

by Kevin Reed on August 17, 2017

The number of people from ethnic minorities in “pipeline” roles to the top FTSE100 jobs has increased to 5%, but the current number sitting on boards has fallen by 18%, a new report finds.

Diversity, ethnic minority pipeline

Strength in diversity. Photo: OregonDOT, Flickr.

The pipeline for people from ethnic minorities to make it onto FTSE100 boards has improved for the first time in four years, according to executive consultancy Green Park, which has conducted a study entitled Leadership 10,000 for the fourth year running.

Its analysis of the top 10,000 roles across FTSE100 businesses found 451 ethnic minority executives in leadership roles, which includes 0.5% within the top 20 most senior roles, and 5% in the top 100 roles within a business.

However, 58% of main boards still have no ethnic minority presence; this is in the context of the government’s Parker Review, which set the target that no FTSE100 board shall be exclusively white by 2020. There is also an 18% decrease in the number of ethnic minorities holding chairman, CEO or CFO roles in the FTSE100.

Baroness McGregor-Smith, vice-chair of DRIVE (Green Park’s social enterprise) and author of Race in the workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review, said: “Despite the Leadership 10,000 report showing that every industry in the FTSE100 still needs to do better with proportional diversity, the findings provide actionable baseline data for the index to improve their leadership’s diversity, moving them closer to achieving the diversity dividend.

She said the “clear picture” the report painted means that proactive conversations at board level can be instigated to show minority communities that the issue is being taken seriously.

Top 10 FTSE companies measured by diversity of leadership

Rank
Company
Sector
1
InterContinental Hotels Group plc
Leisure
2
Standard Chartered plc
Banking and Finance
3
Unilever plc
Consumer Goods
4
Randgold Resources
Natural Resources
5
Diageo plc
Consumer Goods
6
Old Mutual plc
Banking and Finance
7
Vodafone Group plc
Telecoms
8
Next plc
Retailing
9
Informa plc
Professional and Support Services
10
Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
Banking and Finance

Source: Green Park Leadership 10,000 (15) report

Raj Tulsiani, CEO of Green Park, said: “In a world where access to top talent from abroad may be increasingly limited, it would be foolish for major enterprises to continue to ignore talent from underrepresented groups.”

Green Park sets out three recommendations from the report:

  • With the UK looking to increase trade with non-EU countries, the government should increase its support for initiatives that aim to raise the number of ethnic minority corporate leaders in the UK from East Asian and African backgrounds;
  • Boards should renew efforts to drive diversity in succession planning. This responsibility should sit with the chairman and not be delegated; and
  • Major shareholders should insist that their nomination committees submit annual accounts of their efforts to recruit board members who are not white and male.
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