Visibility, Opportunity and Access

Boards are making progress in representational diversity—slowly. In March 2022, the UK Government-backed Parker Review published its most recent findings on ethnic diversity on UK boards and celebrated that 89 of all FTSE 100 companies met the target to hire at least one board member from an ethnic minority group. Over half of FTSE 250 had met the target as well, making the initiators hopeful that FTSE 350 companies will reach their targets in two years’ time.

However, most boards in the UK and around the world are still overwhelmingly white. In addition to the data from the Parker Review, our 2022-2023 Global Board Diversity Tracker finds that among Russell 3000 companies white board members still hold 81 percent of directorships. To discuss this sobering reality, we partnered with the Executive Leadership Council to gather more than 40 board-ready executives (majority of those ethnically diverse in the UK) to share their thoughts on increasing visibility, getting noticed, appointed and integrated into boards.