- Mandatory retirement—67% of boards (down from 79% in 2004) have a mandatory retirement age, most commonly 75 and older.
- Term—While just 9% of boards (43 companies) have term limits, this compares to 3% in 2014. When they exist, term limits are most commonly set at 15 years or more.
- Tenure—The average tenure of an independent director is 7.8 years, down from 8.4 years in 2014.
- Mandatory resignations—89% of boards require directors to offer their resignation upon a change in employment status or job responsibilities. Acceptance of the resignation is typically subject to the discretion of the board chair or nominating committee chair.
Standing committees
Always a topic of keen interest, here is the breakdown on board committee structures in 2024 as compared to 2023 and five and 10 years ago:
Notably, 72% of boards have more than the three key standing committees (audit, compensation, and nom/gov), with an average of 4.2 standing committees.
Board evaluation practices
Among boards reporting some form of evaluation (99%):
- 47% reported evaluating the full board, board committees, and individual directors; 48% reported evaluating the full board and committees; 4% reported evaluating the full board only; and 1% reported evaluating the full board and directors.
- 28% of boards (up 3% from last year) disclosed engagement of a third-party facilitator.
- More than 70% of companies included a director skills matrix in their most recent proxy statements, up from 38% in 2020.
See Spencer Stuart’s webpage, which provides access to highlights, industry sector comparisons, and benchmarking results by topic.