By Lyndsey Hall
Glencore, the last FTSE 100 company with an all-male board, has made the record books by appointing Patrice Merrin, the former chief operating officer of Sherritt, the Canadian mining giant, as their newest board member.
“This is an historic day for the FTSE.” Vince Cable, Business Secretary
Now, thanks to the government’s promise to promote gender equality in British boardrooms and eradicate all-male boards by 2015, there are no top UK companies without a single female board member. The Lord Davies Review of February 2011, ‘Women on boards’, revealed the extreme lack of females in high power positions, and set out a series of recommendations for the future of gender equality in business.
The target set by Lord Davies was 25% of board positions within FTSE100 by 2015. The government’s annual report was published in March this year and revealed that the actual figure had reached 20.7%, up from 12.5% in 2011, and 17.3% in April 2013. But now, with the appointment of Merrin, that figure has jumped even higher.
“This is an historic day for the FTSE and for the reforms I’ve been pushing for to ensure that there is more diversity in the talent running our biggest companies,” Cable commented. “Huge progress has been made on this agenda since 2010 and from today every single top 100 company listed on the London stock exchange now counts a woman on their board.”
Cable finished by stating that: “Much more needs to be done of course to tackle diversity in the FTSE 250 and to fix the pipeline of women working their way up to the top of businesses to become the leaders of tomorrow. But for today, let us celebrate this important landmark achieved working hand in hand with business.”
The remaining FTSE 250 firms had better start recruiting board members from the pool of incredibly talented and intelligent women in their industry before they all get snapped up!
What are your thoughts on Glencore’s newest appointment? Do you agree that more needs to be done to encourage gender equality in the UK’s top businesses? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our Linkedin page.
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