Women’s group seeks more diversity on corporate boards
Concerned about a lack of diversity in the corporate board rooms across the state, the group known as CABLE so far has collected about 30 names. When it has about 50, it will offer the list to headhunters and other recruiters.
CABLE asks interested women to fill out a questionnaire it can use to build a database of potential candidates. It asks about work experience, areas of expertise and whether the women are on any other corporate or civic boards.
“We’re not trying to make giant leaps,” said Karen Williams, president of CABLE. “We’re looking for incremental movement.”
Last year, a study conducted by CABLE and the Vanderbilt University Women’s Social Policy and Research Center found women hold 7.3 percent of the seats on corporate boards at Tennessee’s 105 public companies.
Women hold only 60 of the 819 board seats in these public companies, and about half the Tennessee companies had no women on their boards.
The study showed, however, that Fortune 500 companies in Tennessee have a higher percentage of women on corporate boards. About 15.5 percent of board seats were held by women in 2003 while the national average was 13.6 percent.
CABLE says it’s working with other women’s groups, including the National Association of Women Business Owners and the National Coalition of 100 Black Woman, to find women interested in serving on boards.
In the wake of Enron and other business scandals, companies still want a diverse pool of candidates to consider, but they’re also looking for people with experience running big companies, said corporate recruiter Charles King, with Los Angeles-based Korn/Ferry International.
“If we’re working for a $5-billion-a-year company,” he said, “we’re going to be looking for a woman who has run business units, if not entire companies, with $2 billion or $3 billion or more in revenue,” and that limits the number of candidates.