The chairmen of Britain’s leading public-quoted companies have been put on the spot about their attitudes to women in the boardroom by institutional investors.

A letter to all FTSE350 chairman is asking them to declare their details of their plans to promote more women to their boards by 2015.

The letter follows the Women On Boards report by Lord Davies to the government earlier this year that asked the companies to reveal their plans by the end of September 2011.

Around a third have issued statements already and more are expected to comply before the deadline.

The letter points out that the investors are ‘eager to understand plans and support progress on this important and topical issue’.

Helena Morrissey, chief executive officer of Newton Investment Management and a signatory to the the letter, said: “In his recommendations, Lord Davies highlighted the critical role investors play in engaging with company boards.

“There is a growing body of evidence that greater diversity at a board level can improve corporate financial performance thereby increasing returns to shareholders. Investors are keen to understand how chairmen are responding to this important issue.”

The investor letter was signed also by:

• Abigail Herron, corporate governance manager of Co-operative Asset Management
• Sue Round, director of investments, Ecclesiastical Investment Management
• Andy Evans, responsible investment advisor, Insight Investment Management
• Emma Howard Boyd, head of sustainable investment and governance, Jupiter Asset Management
• Eric Van La Beck, head of responsible investment, OFI Group
• Frank Curtiss, head of corporate governance, RPMI Railpen

The initiative was convened by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, whose chief executive Penny Shepherd, said: “Responsible investors are keen to hear company plans and support progress on benefiting from gender diversity at board level.

“In the light of the European Commission’s recent Corporate Governance Green Paper, Lord Davies’ recommendations also offer a significant opportunity for UK companies to demonstrate the effectiveness of a ‘comply or explain’ approach compared with the use of gender quotas.”

This article is filed under : Women, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

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