In the remaining days of summer before the Labour Day weekend, given that July and August are somewhat slow months, I had an idea – a fun idea.
I thought about how many Canadian boards still have zero women on them. I did a search, assisted by some publicly available Catalyst data. As it turns out, there are many. I did not do an exhaustive search but here is what I came up with (there are more). I tried to cover industry and geographical spread, as well as high-lighting some recognizable Canadian companies such as Air Canada and others. Here is a list of 35 of the top 500 Canadian companies that are, shall we say, lacking given the movement to diversifications of corporate boards in several countries.
Look at all the men, and in most cases white men! Where are the women and minority directors? Do we not have qualified diverse directors to sit on corporate boards in Canada? (And note a number of the boards below contain men who are governance experts and who promote boardroom diversity!)
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation
North American Construction Group
Precision Drilling Corporation
Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc.
Caveat: The above search was internet-based and may not be current. I also attempted to glean male-vs-female through first names and Google image searches when necessary. If I have made a mistake, I am happy to correct it and apologize!
Here is my offer to the chair of the board or chair of the nominating committee of any company below. If you are serious about addressing boardroom diversity, I will put you in contact – either myself or via another expert third party – with women who have business and C-suite experience in your industry. I may revisit this list in the future and hopefully you will not be on it!
Richard Leblanc