Board Diversity: Scenario Model
The Conference Board and Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, in partnership with The SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, developed a scenario model that companies can use to enhance the gender diversity of their boards.
Model Description
The model can be used to examine the gender diversity implications of four key governance decisions on the composition of corporate boards. Specifically, decisions on:
- The number of directorship positions on corporate boards.
- The percentage of newly-created directorships for which women are appointed.
- The turnover (attrition) of existing directorship positions.
- The percentage of attrition-based directorships for which women are appointed.
The scenario model is pre-populated with data based on a large sample of U.S. public companies (more than 2,500 companies) over a seven-year period (2004-2011), as compiled by BoardEx.1 To access the pre-populated model calculations, click the Calculations/Historical data and Attrition data tabs in the Excel spreadsheet that you can download from this page.
A general application of the model to the entire sample (see All firms tab) is supplemented with specific applications to subsets of the underlying sample for which companies were aggregated by company size (based on annual revenue and inclusion in major Fortune indexes: see F500 and F250 tabs).
By modifying the numbers related to each of the variables described above, the model highlights the dynamics required to accelerate gender diversity in the boardroom.
1BoardEx is a trademarked product of Management Diagnostic Limited, a U.K.-registered company. The scenario model is based on a more comprehensive analysis of corporate governance trends for use in academic research.