Board diversity

Shadow boards can be considered as a tool for navigating a turbulent and ever-changing business landscape. Find out how accountancy businesses can see the same benefits from setting up a shadow board that other sectors are already experiencing.

In this Connect and Reflect report, ICAEW urges boards to consider the value that employee directors can bring to their organisation. The publication explains the role and responsibilities of employee directors and outlines a five-point action plan that should enable boards to take this step to improve their corporate governance.

Based on in-depth interviews with audit committee members in seven CEE countries, this report draws out insights on how audit committees are working, how they are having an impact and how they view the future. It provides insights into some of the common challenges still remaining at a time when the role of audit committees is expanding, largely driven by the introduction of new statutory requirements

In recent years, governments, regulators and corporate governance groups around the world have been taking initiatives to increase representation of women on boards. Debate continues about the effectiveness of measures to address this and other board diversity issues. However, rather than simply reacting, what should boards themselves be doing? This paper considers the principal drivers of diversity to help boards set and assess diversity objectives to promote long-term business success.

The pandemic has pushed back gender parity across the UK FTSE 350 to 2036, with women holding just 22% of all executive committee roles. Just 15 of the top companies have female chief executives. While we’ve made some progress in recent years, what needs to change to reach true equality? ICAEW's Susanna Di Feliciantonio and Jane Berney discuss the issue with a panel of experts.

Vimeo Not Restricted, Should display default Thumbnail image.The Women in Leadership (WIL) programme provides career development support for mid-management to board level women aspiring to be a partner or aiming for senior management roles.

Independent review by Sir John Parker, considering how to improve the ethnic and cultural diversity of UK boards to better reflect their employee base and the communities they serve. First published in 2017 and updated regularly since. Site includes an archive of previous reports and the current (2024) report

Successor report to the Hampton-Alexander Review and the Davies Reviews. Reports on progress for women serving on boards, and for women in the two senior management layers below the board in 400 companies.

Commissioned by the FRC and conducted by a research team from Cranfield University and Delta Alpha Psi Services, this research looks at the challenges and opportunities that minority ethnic individuals might experience in progressing to the boards of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies.

The GLIC is a research community which collaborates with industry and produces high quality research in the areas of gender, leadership and inclusion at work. The centre, which is part of Cranfield University's School of Management, is responsible for an annual benchmarking report, The Female FTSE Board Report which has been published since 1999 and includes details of the number of female directors on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards. The website provides information on the work of the centre, its research projects and published research papers.