Peninsula business, economic boards still lack women

Regional business and economic development organizations recognize they need more women in board and leadership positions throughout Hampton Roads, their leaders say.

Old Dominion University’s annual State of the Region report in October highlighted a gap in women’s participation in the highest levels of leadership in the region.

The problem becomes magnified when regional organizations are looking for top leaders to serve on their boards. If fewer women are making it to the CEO or C-suite level of their companies, fewer women are being tapped to serve on the boards that are shaping the region’s future in terms of economic development and jobs.

For example, three women (9%) are part of the 33member Hampton Roads Business Roundtable, according to its representative, Kemper Consulting. The roundtable is a group of CEOs and business leaders organized to accomplish specific goals, like pushing lawmakers to implement a funding mechanism for expanding regional transportation infrastructure.

Three women (11%) serve on the 28-member Region 5 GO Virginia Council representing Hampton Roads, according to its website. GO Virginia is a statewide economic development program that offers incentives for collaboration among localities.

The region’s GO Virginia program is administered by the nonprofit Reinvent Hampton Roads. In December, Reinvent added three new board members, all men. Of 18 members on the board, two (11%) are women, according to its website.

“I think it’s fair to say that women have made progress in the last 40 years, but there hasn’t been enough,” said Anne Conner, a TowneBank executive who has served on multiple boards in the 757, including as the first board chairwoman of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News.

As vice chair of the Region 5 GO Virginia Council, Conner recognizes it doesn’t include enough women — something she said she intends to address.

Still, she applauds the progress of 757 Angels and 757 Accelerate that aim to grow startups and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Conner served as the founding board chair of 757 Accelerate, which is led by Executive Director Evans McMillion, and as a founding board member of 757 Angels, which is led by Executive Director Monique Adams and board chair Nancy Grden, who leads Old Dominion University’s Strome Entrepreneurial Center. Women comprise a quarter of the Angels board and a third of the Accelerate board, according to their websites.

ODU’s women’s leadership report also called out both the Hampton Roads and Peninsula chambers of commerce for women representing less than a quarter of their board memberships. (It also showed how the 2019 Inside Business Power List named only 30 women to its list of 100 people important to the future of the region.)

At its annual meeting in December, the Hampton Roads Chamber elected Rhonda Bridgeman, president and owner of Comfort Systems of Virginia Inc., as its board chair. Three of the chamber’s past six chairs have been women, Chamber President and CEO Bryan K. Stephens said.

Currently, the chamber’s board is 31% women and 69% men, he said. A few years ago, that was 25% and 75%, respectively, Stephens said, highlighting the positive trajectory. Nine (30%) of 30 executive board members — those who do the bulk of the work — are women.

About six years ago, the chamber noticed there was an inequity with women business leaders in Hampton Roads and on its boards, Stephen said. To promote women in the business community, the chamber launched an event series now called Power of Women where participants shared the unique challenges they faced and how they overcame them. It also runs a professional women’s leadership series.

“We believe more women ought to be in the C-suites in the businesses in Hampton Roads,” Stephens said. “They ought to be on the boards and having an impact in Hampton Roads.”

The chamber made sure to keep asking women and minorities with leadership experience and needed expertise to serve on its board, he said.

“It’s being mindful,” Stephens said. “This chamber and its board of directors needs to represent the business community.”

By being tapped into the community, the chamber knows when new leaders come to town. For instance, it immediately recruited Dianne Green, the general manager of ADP’s new Norfolk facility, to serve on its board, said Priscilla Monti, chamber senior vice president for programs and communications.

And this year, its leadership development program called LEAD Hampton Roads has 24 women (56%) and 19 men (44%), he said. Women have also led the chamber’s young professionals group called tHRive.

Eventually, Stephens would like to be at a place where equality in the workplace, whether opportunity or pay, is just the norm.

The Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has elected four new female board members based on merit and need since August 2018, said President and CEO Bob McKenna. Kim Mallory with the College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business joined the board in December.

The Virginia Peninsula Chamber plans to continue its partnership established last year with William & Mary to support women-inbusiness programming, he said. This year’s LEAD Peninsula’s class has 31 (54%) women of 57 participants and all four elected officers of the recently formed LEAD alumni association are women.

The Peninsula chamber recognizes the business landscape is changing and programs like leadership development and the Women’s Leadership Forum can help the board identify future board members from diverse backgrounds, McKenna said. This also helps the chamber identify candidates for membership on other boards throughout the region, he added.

In the ODU report, Hampton Roads Community Foundation President and CEO Deborah DiCroce noted the foundation board implemented term limits and increased its size from nine to 17 members to enhance diversity.

The nonprofit foundation had convened business leaders to find ways to help the region compete economically, which ultimately led to the launch of Reinvent Hampton Roads, 757 Angels and other efforts. DiCroce is on the boards of Reinvent and the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable.

Women represent 35% of the foundation board, which elected attorney Sharon Goodwyn as vice chair last year. She is the first African American and woman to serve in a top leadership position on the board.

How can organizations get more women on board? DiCroce, a past president of Tidewater Community College, said it takes recognizing that it matters to the mission itself.

Organizations should look at how they govern themselves with bylaws and how they determine board membership and nominees, she said. Then, cast a wide net to find good candidates so diversity becomes a natural part of the process versus some sort of requirement, she said.