In this recent post: "6 Strategies to Strengthen Boardroom Diversity to Advance African Americans," John Rogers - Chair & CEO of Ariel Investments, director of McDonald’s and Exelon, and co-founder of the annual Black Corporate Directors Conference, and James Bell - retired EVP, CFO and Corporate President of Boeing and director of JPMorgan Chase, Dow Chemical, and Apple, identify and explain in a logical and easily-relatable (and broadly applicable to other minorities) fashion how companies can increase the African American representation on their boards.
Strategies include:
- Push suppliers, many of which are smaller companies (which are generally less diverse) that supply larger companies (which are generally more diverse), to embrace inclusion and hold them accountable.
- CEOs need to make clear to the company's top-tier suppliers that board and senior management inclusion is among the company's top priorities.
- CEOs who support and champion board diversity need to promote similar practices to their peers.
- Recommend African American director candidates based on what they've done to make a difference in their communities - not just their paper credentials.
- African American investors and asset managers must engage; asset managers can demand diversification at their portfolio companies.
- Companies must develop more senior managers of color to grow the pipeline for diverse corporate directors.
Watch for today's Society Alert reports on board composition, including board gender and ethnicity/race disclosures in 2017 proxy statements, and access numerous additional benchmarking, guidance and other helpful resources on our Board Diversity topical page. This post first appeared in last week's Society Alert!