Filipina global leader urges firms to elect more women directors

global leader Irene Natividad recently urged corporate regulators and the private sector to increase the number of women directors in companies as this bodes well for good corporate governance.

Natividad, president of the Global Summit of Women, was recently in Manila for a series of engagements including one for the Distinguished Corporate Governance Speaker Series (DCGSS) organized by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD).

In her talk at the DCGSS, Natividad said that women hold only 9.8 percent of board seats among Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies.

She, however, noted that “the Philippines does slightly better at 10 percent of women directors in the 100 listed companies.”

But there’s a lot of room for growth, she revealed. “Given the number of women leading major subsidiaries of global multinationals here in the Philippines, there's clearly a talent base from which to draw corporate directors.”

“Companies here need to understand that Boards need to be refreshed through the inclusion of talents, experiences, and perspectives that reflect their stakeholders – their customers, workers, and communities in which they operate,” she added.

For instance, Natividad shared that there are technology-related advances that impact on all companies' operations. This is in terms of innovation and growth. To achieve this, boards with aging members whose expertise came from an older economy need to open up their boardrooms to new directors, she said.

“There are lots of women leading tech companies in the Philippines who should be invited to corporate boards,” explained Natividad, while citing studies by McKinsey and Credit Suisse that have shown a correlation between more women on boards and a company's better financial performance.

“The bottom line is that women at the top of the corporate pyramid are good for business,” she said.

In Australia, Natividad noted its Stock Exchange’s efforts of making gender diversity on boards a listing requirement, which means that companies had to report on the percentage of women directors, senior executives, and workers annually plus their plans to improve those numbers.

“The result, female board directors increased from 8.6 percent in 2004 to 20.1 percent in 2015.”

As one of the speakers of ICD’s flagship program – the Distinguished Corporate Governance Speaker Series – Natividad joins the roster of foremost thinkers and practitioners in the global Corporate Governance field who have shared their ideas, views, and knowledge with various Philippine audiences.