Browsing by Author "Tessaro, Michelle"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Female FTSE Board Report 2020: Taking Targets Seriously
    (2020-09-24) Vinnicombe, Susan; Doldor, Elena; Battista, Valentina; Tessaro, Michelle
    This year we see a positive picture in terms of the number of women on corporate boards. The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 34.5% and the equivalent figure for FTSE 250 boards is 31.9%, so hopefully all FTSE 350 boards should hit the Hampton-Alexander target of 33% by the end of 2020. In total 324 women hold 355 FTSE 100 directorships. The percentage of female non-executive directors (NEDs) is at an all-time high of 40.8%, whilst the percentage of female executive directorships has risen slightly this year to 13.2%. There has been more progress recorded on the FTSE 250 boards, where the percentage of female NEDs is 37.6% and the percentage of female executive directors (EDs) is 11.3%. There is quite a lot of variance across boards indicating that only 63% FTSE 100 and 53% FTSE 250 have reached the target of 33% women in their boards.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Female FTSE Board Report 2021: Inclusion Works For Everyone
    (2021-10-07) Vinnicombe, Susan; De Largy, Christine; Tessaro, Michelle; Battista, Valentina; Anderson, Deirdre A.
    This year we see further progress in terms of the number of women on corporate boards. The percentage of women in FTSE 100 boards is 38% and the parallel figure for FTSE 250 boards is 35%, so all boards in aggregate have met and indeed exceeded the target set by Hampton-Alexander. In total, women hold 393 directorships across FTSE 100 boards. The percentage of female Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) stands at 44.4%, an all time high, in comparison to the percentage of female Executive Directors (EDs) which has flatlined for a second year, running at 13.7%. A similar picture is evident across FTSE 250 boards where women hold 688 directorships and 41.2% of the NED roles, but only 11.3% of the ED roles. There continues to be considerable variance across the boards, indicating that 21% of the FTSE 100 boards and 32% of FTSE 250 boards have yet to reach the Hampton-Alexander target of 33% women on their boards. This highlights the drawback to voluntary targets and prompts whether it is time to make these targets mandatory.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Female FTSE Board Report 2024: 25 years on - milestones and misses
    (2024-12-31) Vinnicombe, Susan; Tessaro, Michelle; Battista, Valentina
    This year we see continuing progress in the appointment of women to Non-Executive Directorships on FTSE 350 boards. The percentage of women in total on FTSE 100 boards now sits at 43.4% and on FTSE 250 boards is 42.4%, thus on average both sets of companies have met the target set by the Women Leaders Review. In total, women hold 450 directorships across FTSE 100 boards. The percentage of female Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) stands at 49%, in comparison with the percentage of female Executive Directors (EDs) which is 20.3%. The latter is at an all time high and is explained by the increase of female Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) in an active market for new CFOs. Women hold 793 directorships across the FTSE 250 boards. The percentage of female NEDs is very similar to the FTSE 100 at 49.3%, thus there is now parity of men and women in NED roles across FTSE 350 companies. Following the target set by the Women Leaders Review of appointing at least one woman to one of the top four roles (CEO, CFO, Chair and SID), there has been a push to appoint women into the ‘softest’ of those roles, the SID role, where we now see gender parity across both FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards. The percentage of women in ED roles across FTSE 250 boards has slipped further since our last report to 11.8%. The gap between the percentage of women in ED roles and NED roles across FTSE 250 boards has grown over the past three years (30%, 33% and 37%). Companies seem to have taken their focus off the big prize of getting more women into the top executive leadership roles
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Female FTSE Board Report 2022: What works?
    (2022-12-31) Vinnicombe, Susan; Tessaro, Michelle
    There has been a continued increase in the number of women on corporate boards. The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 40% and the parallel percentage for FTSE 250 boards is 39%, meaning that FTSE 100 boards have already met the target set by the Women Leaders Review for 2025 and FTSE 250 are on the cusp of meeting it. Overall, women hold 413 directorships across FTSE 100 boards - the increase in women coming primarily as usual from female Non -Executive Directorships (NEDs). The number of women in Executive Directorships (EDs) has increased marginally from 31 to 36. A similar pro昀椀le emerges for FTSE 250 companies where women hold 752 directorships, of which 705 are NED and only 47 are EDs. There has been no change in the number of women EDs for the past three years. As in previous years there continues to be a wide variance between the top and bottom companies, indicating the downside of voluntary targets over mandatory quotas.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The role of numbers, power and status of female corporate directors on gender diversity below the board
    (Cranfield University, 2022-09) Tessaro, Michelle; Vinnicombe, Sue; Turnbull James, Kim
    This thesis explores the relationship between women on corporate boards and the representation of women in the two senior levels below the board. During the past twenty years there has been considerable efforts to improve the numbers of women in leadership roles. While there has been significant progress in developing a critical mass of WoB, it has not had the anticipated effect of improved gender diversity below the board, where progress has been slow and has yielded inconsistent results. Drawing on data from UK FTSE100 companies, this research moves beyond the trickle-down effect related to critical mass theory and incorporates the constructs of power and status to examine the relationship of women on boards and women in the executive levels. The findings suggest that it is the confluence of women on boards in their numbers, and in positions of power and status that drives gender diversity below the board. This thesis makes a number of contributions to knowledge. Taking a configurational approach using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), was a departure from previous research which has mostly relied on the use of traditional regression analysis. Instead, a QCA embraces casual complexity using a comparative case-based method to systematically analyze configurations of conditions and outcomes. The use of this methodology was important in developing two theoretical contributions. First, it allowed for a more complex analysis, incorporating the theoretical lens of power and status and women’s numerical representation to examine the impact of the gender composition of corporate boards on gender diversity below the board. The findings provide empirical evidence that a critical mass of women is not enough on its own to activate trickle-down mechanism as it is neither necessary nor sufficient in its association with improved gender diversity in the executive levels. Instead, a multi theoretic approach results in strong empirical evidence that female directors on corporate boards, when represented in their numbers, power and status, indicate gender integrated boards and gender integrated boards are key to consistently activating the trickle-down effect. This research also facilitated the development of a board evolution model. Although speculative, it provides a preliminary hypothesis describing how boards have evolved from male dominated ones to ones that are not only gender balanced but gender integrated, where women directors are present in positions of power and influence.