Norman Broadbent, in conjunction with BDO and the Quoted Companies Alliance, has published a report – NB: Board Review 2014 – analysing the board composition of over 1700 quoted companies, highlighting trends in age of board members, gender diversity of boards, and the amount of time that directors are on boards.
On the whole, listed companies are making impressive progress in working towards the UK's target for women on boards. However, the research reveals that only 7% of non-executive board member appointments to AIM company boards during the last three years have been women. The findings demonstrate that the proportion of women on and being appointed to AIM boards is severely lagging behind all other UK quoted companies, which boast around three times as many female non-executive directors overall.
Further key findings include:
- The number of female executive directors is low, but improving slowly. In the FTSE 100 this proportion is highest, at 7.6%.
- In the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, boards have made progress in increasing gender diversity. 37% of non-executive director posts in FTSE 100 companies were filled by women and 34% of non-executive director posts in FTSE 250 companies were filled by women in the last three years.
- Executive directors tend to be, on average, 10 years younger than chairmen across all markets.
- Age diversity is the greatest on AIM, where directors’ ages range between in mid-20s and 90s.
- In FTSE 100 companies, chairmen are most likely to be appointed from within their own boards.
- Chairmen of FTSE 250 companies have served on boards the longest, with an average of 18.9 years.
Click here to download the full NB: Board Review report (pdf)
