Latinos lag on company boards
Corporate Directors Association. “There’s hundreds of experienced directors and thousands of C-level executives that are qualified for the board room. One of the biggest hurdles we have seen is this myth that they can’t find qualified Latinos.”
Aguilera said companies have a business interest in seeking diversity.
“If you don’t have diversity in the boardroom it can lead to lost market share and missed market opportunity, especially as the country is diversifying,” she said.
The Latino Corporate Directors Association and another group, Latino Voices for Boardroom Equity, wrote letters in 2020 to each California public company without a Latino board member to help identify candidates.
That included PayPal, the San Jose tech firm searching for a new board member.
Louise Pentland, the PayPal executive vice president who oversaw the search, credits the groups with providing hundreds of potential candidates, which expanded the pool beyond what a recruitment firm was providing.
“There’s great talent already out there and that has grown significantly,” Pentland said. “One of the reasons why we don’t see as much diversity still is we tend to go to the same sources.”
She said it was “unsurprising” and “disappointing” that the share of Latinos on boards remains low.
PayPal was looking for an active CEO of a global company, particularly in tech, and found a good match with Enrique Lores, the Spain-born CEO of HP Inc.
Lores also serves on HP’s board along with Aida Alvarez, who was the first Latino woman to hold a U.S. cabinet position. She served as head of the Small Business Administration under President Bill Clinton.
The legal push for more diverse boards has an uncertain future after AB979 was ruled unconstitutional by a judge last month. It’s unclear whether the state will appeal. A law requiring women on boards was also struck down this week.
Pentland is optimistic that companies will seek more diversity even without a legal mandate.
“We’ve got some momentum building,” Pentland said. “We need to keep momentum.”