Boosting Board Diversity in Italy

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Corriere della Sera – Boosting Board Diversity in Italy

The barriers keeping women out of boardrooms are largely built on unconscious bias, notes Tommaso Arenare, a consultant at Egon Zehnder, Milan, in Corriere della Sera. When recruiting, and without even realising it, people often select candidates who are similar to themselves, he notes. In Italy the well-structured law 120 introduced in 2011 gently nudged Italian companies to give the under-represented gender a minimum threshold of seats on the board. This focused far greater attention on merit and competencies when selecting board members, notes Arenare. The law’s impact was not only limited to women, but also extended to men, as well as to other aspects of diversity, like age and geographical origin. For Arenare, recruitment of board members improved, focusing more on competencies, merit and experience and resulting in better corporate governance.

Full story: Tommaso Arenare: Valored al #tempodelledonne: a lezione di leadership in Corriere della Sera (22 September 2014).

See also: European Board Diversity Analysis 2014 .