The Midwest Investor Diversity Initiative (MIDI), a coalition of 16 institutional investors (we first discussed here), reported on its progress in advancing board diversity among Midwest-headquartered companies. Over the past year, MIDI engaged with 21 companies, six of which appointed women or persons of color to their boards and seven of which committed to adopt policies that prioritize diversity in their search processes. Since its 2016 launch, 90 women and persons of color have been appointed to the boards of the 75 Midwest-based companies MIDI has engaged, and 34 companies have adopted a diverse search policy. The release includes the names of companies that have committed to adopt or have adopted diverse search policies and added diverse directors since MIDI's launch.
See these additional MIDI resources, which may assist all companies, regardless of geography:
MIDI also collaborates with the Thirty Percent Coalition.
The Thirty Percent Coalition announced noteworthy achievements of its institutional investor-led "Adopt a Company" campaign whereby Coalition members are encouraged to "adopt" companies in their portfolios for engagement. Prompted by institutional investor member engagement with more than 250 companies during the past year, 65 companies appointed a woman to their board for the first time and 62 companies appointed a second woman to their boards; 517 companies have appointed at least one woman to their boards since the campaign launched in 2012. The Coalition is committed to women (including women of color) holding 30% or more of directorships across public companies.
See this Pensions & Investments article and our recent reports: “Women on Board!”, “Coalition Reports on Women of Color Board Diversity Campaign” and “Investor Coalition Touts Corporate Board Diversity Achievements” and additional resources on our Board Diversity page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!