Tag: Diversity

These Are the Only 4 S&P 500 Companies Run by Women of Color

A great deal has been written about how the CEO jobs at America’s largest companies are almost exclusively held by white men. At the other end of the spectrum, the number of female chief executives of color is extremely small: only four.

According to research by MyLogIQ, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze public companies, and which recently published “The Face of Corporate America,” white males make up 89% of CEOs at S&P 500 companies. Hispanics make up 3%, and people of Indian origin make up another 3%. Only 1% of CEOs are Black.

These are the four female CEOS of color:

Dr. Lisa Su is president and chief executive officer of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD). She was appointed to her current position in October 2014. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Su has published more than 40 technical articles. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers. She was listed as one of Barron’s “World’s Best CEOs” for 2019. AMD had revenue of $6.7 billion last year.

Only 11% of S&P 500 Companies Have CEOs of Color, and It Gets Worse …

A new study titled “The Face of Corporate America” examines the racial and gender figures for S&P 500 chief executive officers. The analysis was done by MyLogIQ, Public company intelligence provider, and it shows that only 11% of the CEOs among the companies are people of color. The gender figures and figures about female CEOs of color were even worse.

CEOs of color were defined as those who are Latin American, Black, Indian, Asian or of mixed race. Fifty-one were men of color, based on a specific count of the leaders.

Additionally, the analysis showed that only 6% were female. This translates to only four CEOs.

While much of the senior management and many board members at large companies have been mostly white, the research shows the extent to which the problem is pervasive. MyLogIQ examined 504 CEOs (because Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Globe Life, Howmet Aerospace and Synopsis have co-CEOs).

How Women Will Save The Future, One Corporate Board at a Time

Getting more women into the corporate boardroom has been a high priority governance issue for several years globally.

While there has been progress, has it been enough?

According to data from MyLogiq, 30% of corporate directors are female for the companies in the Dow 30, while only 23% are female for companies in the Russell 3000 index.

Deloitte reports that women only hold 16.9% of board seats globally even though between 2008 and 2015, 32 countries enacted some type of boardroom gender quota.

As a macro benchmark, the World Bank estimated that 50.52% of America’s population and 49.58% of the global population was female in 2018. Deloitte’s research reports that Norway and France come closest to these percentages, with female directors comprising 41% and 37% of the boardroom.

CEOs Under 50 Are a Rare Find in the S&P 500

When he became chief executive of power-generation company NRG Energy Inc. more than three years ago, Mauricio Gutierrez said his selection raised eyebrows.

One reason: He is younger than most executives running S&P 500 companies. “I’m an outlier,” the 48-year-old said. “People take notice.”

At America’s largest companies, chief executives under 50 are still a relative rarity. A Wall Street Journal analysis of S&P 500 companies that filed corporate proxy statements by May 1 shows 28 of 493 CEOs, or 6%, are under 50.

Among members of Generation X in the top job: Nasdaq Inc.’s Adena Friedman, age 49, along with the chief executives of burrito chain burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and casino giant casino giant Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Boards on Cusp of Major Generational Shift

As companies face continuous pressure to bring on diverse directors with current expertise in technology and cyber security, there are increasing indications that boards’ recruiting in response to that prodding has led to the first blush of a new generational shift on boards.

Several new data points show that there has been a ramping up of directors’ leaving board seats for various reasons. Sources say that much of that exodus has been made up of baby boomer directors who have reached or are approaching mandatory retirement age. Furthermore, as the remaining boomer board members see that a large portion of their peer group has left, more directors are likely to question whether they are still making the best possible contributions to the boards and companies they oversee.

According to exclusive data from SEC filings analyzer MyLogIQ, there were 772 directors from Russell 3000 boards who left board seats in the first three months of 2019 — the time of year when many decisions about board composition take effect — due to retirement, resignation, directors’ opting not to stand for reelection or other reasons such as medical leave. In 2018, the figure was 556, while the 2017 figure was 483. For a more granular breakdown of the data in this article, please visit our research vault.

Director Retirements Continue to Rise

Directors report that they are stepping down in order to support their boards’ aims to refresh the board composition. While mandatory retirement age is still a main driver of board turnover, some directors are leaving their board seats because it’s “simply the right time.”

Sandra Beach Lin, chair of the nominating and governance committee on the Wesco International board, informed the board last month that she would retire. Beach Lin has served as a director for 17 years, including 10 as nom-gov chair.

“I joined the board when I was in my forties, and so the mandatory retirement age of 72 wasn’t really a factor for me in this decision,” she writes in an e-mail. “I’m proud of the work that our nominating and governance committee has done to refresh the board and add members (i.e. one earlier this year and two others within the last five years), and we continue recruiting with that in mind.”

30 S&P 500 CEOs with 20 Years or More on the Job

Keeping a job, any job, for 20 years or more is becoming rarer and rarer. The feat may be uniquely treacherous for the chief executive officer of a publicly traded company that is judged on quarterly performance. As goes the company, so goes the CEO’s career. Among the companies that comprise the S&P 500 index,… Continue reading 30 S&P 500 CEOs with 20 Years or More on the Job

Wave of New Recruits Join Boards

After years in which many board members privately claimed that it was too difficult to find qualified women to serve as board members, 2018 is on pace to become a year in which a record number of women join boards. The Wall Street Journal reports that women represented close to one third of new board members recruited to… Continue reading Wave of New Recruits Join Boards