With investor interest in the skill level of corporate board leaders on the rise and easy-to-read skills matrices emerging as a best practice, reviewing the current state of these disclosures among leading companies can help establish a baseline for other companies.

Improving disclosure of board skills, especially of existential capabilities such as guarding against a cybersecurity attack, managing climate change, or stewarding human capital can be an effective communications tool.

With ESG disclosure quality at the top of the agenda at the SEC, this CompanyIQ corporate governance report provides some insight into current proxy disclosure practices related to board skills among S&P 500 companies.

Some of our updated key findings include:

• Close to two-thirds, 66%, of S&P 500 companies used a board skills matrix in their 2023 proxies as a way of conveying the background of their directors. This represents a 16% increase over last year.
• Nine SASB sectors show an increase in the use of skill matrices.
• The greatest growth was in the Renewable Resources sector.