Women serving on corporate boards are far more likely than their male counterparts to favor increased boardroom diversity, new regulations for executive compensation, proxy access for shareowners and enhanced risk management, according to a new survey of corporate directors by Heidrick & Struggles, WomenCorporateDirector (WCD), and Dr. Boris Groysberg.
Women serving on corporate boards are thus far more likely to be wrong on at least three out of four major issues:
- I'm not convinced by the claims that board diversity is correlated with (let alone a cause of) firm performance. The empirical evidence is, at best, mixed.
- I am convinced that the new regulations of executive compensation are a classic example of quack corporate governance.
- And proxy access is even worse, of course. (same link)
- As for "enhanced risk management," what do we mean by that? If we mean doing a better job of promoting enterprise risk management, sure. If we mean that boards should be directly involved in risk management, no. If we mean boards should devote effort to preventing black swan events, no.
