Miner urged to appoint women

FERREXPO has been urged to appoint a woman to its board after resignations prompted by a charity scandal made it the third FTSE 350 firm to only have male directors.

The iron ore miner’s sole female non- executive director, Mary Reilly, 66, left in late April on the same day Deloitte said it was resigning as Ferrexpo’s auditor. Deloitte quit over a review into allegations of possible misuse of funds given to a Ukrainebased charity called Blooming Land, which carried out Ferrexpo’s community work. Reilly’s exit triggered calls for the miner to appoint female members to the board.

Fiona Hathorn, managing director of Women On Boards UK, said: ‘Many studies have shown that women can take a risk and their returns relative to risk are higher because of their more wary and judicious natures.’