bOARD DIVERSITY HONG KONG'S
WOMEN ON BOARD INVESTOR INITIATIVE
OUR VISION
We believe gender diversity on boards encourages better leadership, better corporate governance and ultimately increases corporate performance and global competitiveness for both companies and their shareholders. While research continues to point to benefits of improving diversity on boards and in senior management, Hong Kong has continued to lag behind other major financial centers. As investors we can contribute to improving diversity by pledging to engage with our investee companies in Hong Kong and hold them accountable on all matters related to diversity and gender representation.
OUR MISSION
As investors, we aim to engage with Hong Kong's publicly-listed companies and encourage them to commit to better gender diversity at all levels of their organizations starting with the Board of Directors.
As investors, we believe diversity is paramount for best decision making.
As investors, we believe better gender diversity in boardrooms of Hong Kong listed companies would set the tone from the top.
As investors, we want to contribute to the needed and urgent collective effort to improve diversity on Hong Kong's boards.
We support the voluntary aspirational targets set by the 30% Club Hong Kong to achieve 25% female representation on boards of listed companies by 2025, and 30% within six years which should be then mandated by quotas if these targets are not met.
THE LATEST
30% Club Boardroom Event on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at HKEX, Connect Hall - joining this event enables you to demonstrate your commitment to increasing gender diversity in the boardroom and C-suite and meet some of Hong Kong’s most senior leaders including our Women to Watch. Hong Kong has made progress in board gender diversity through regulatory reforms led by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Whilst women now hold 19.4% of directorships on Hang Seng Index listed boards, we all need to enhance efforts to create the conditions for increased board gender diversity. Our annual boardroom event offers a vital platform to elevate women leaders in Hong Kong, fostering direct connections with Board Directors, CEOs, and senior executives of leading companies. Join us in advancing towards 50% representation of women on boards in Hong Kong.
August 2024 HKEX Consultation - we would like to share with you the 30% Club guidance for the HK Exchange consultation, and encourage you to take action! Seizing the Momentum – Help Us Achieve Gender Parity on Hong Kong Boards. We have a critical opportunity to push for greater representation of women on boards! Please join us in submitting a response to HKEX’s latest consultation by Friday, August 16, 2024.
TWF & 30% CLUB HK'S VIEW: AIM FOR 50% WOMEN ON BOARDS, BOLDER RULES NEEDED TO REACH 30% BY 2027
The Women’s Foundation (TWF) has been a staunch advocate for more diverse corporate boards since we launched the 30% Club Hong Kong in 2013. We warmly welcomed the Listing Rule requiring that single-gender boards will no longer be tolerated by the end of 2024, but we urge HKEX to now go further. We have previously highlighted our concern that this rule runs the risk of issuers simply appointing one woman per board to meet the mandatory requirement. This is now borne out by statistics: since 2021, issuers with 1 female director has increased almost by almost 10%. Issuers with more than 1 female director has only increased by 6%.
The board gender diversity percentage for the HSI is still at only 19% with only one issuer still to meet the no single gender board requirement. When all issuers meet the no single gender board requirement it will have a minimal impact on the overall percentage of women on boards in Hong Kong.
We must seize the momentum and aim for 50% women on boards. To get there, we need bolder rules to reach 30% by 2027.
We strongly urge HKEX to include the following elements in the Corporate Governance Code:
1. Extend the no single-gender boards rule to 30% representation of women on boards by 2027, with the aim of parity.
2. Require issuers to now set a target of at least 30% board gender diversity by 31 December, 2027 in preparation for the extension of the no single-gender board rule.
3. Clarify that the requirement to disclose workforce diversity policies must include measurable objectives and targets of 30% female representation at senior management level by 31 December, 2027. This is an essential means of building a pipeline for diverse board talent and to achieve overall diversity among issuers in Hong Kong.
HOW TO TAKE ACTION
TWF and the 30% Club HK will be responding to the Consultation separately. We urge each of you to carefully read the Consultation and our guidance attached and submit your organisation’s and / or your individual responses on or before Friday, August 16, 2024.
The Consultation and the questionnaire can be found here. Please use any of our material as a foundation for your response if useful and do respond to all the questions in the questionnaire for your submission to carry its full weight. Even if you fully agree with our recommendations, we suggest editing your answers slightly to ensure that the wording is different enough to be accepted by HKEX. Otherwise, it will be treated as one submission and have less impact with the regulator.
Change is only achieved through collective efforts, so we hope you will join us to help Hong Kong achieve greater gender diversity at all levels and in all companies. Do feel free to forward this on to other interested parties, organisations and networks.
If you would like to participate in a discussion on the Consultation or have any queries please contact us at 30percentclub@twfhk.org. We would be happy to bring a small group or groups together to discuss these issues and members of the 30% Club regulatory working group are standing by to advise on any issues you have.
30% Club Boardroom Event on Friday, June 13, 2024 at Asia Society, Hong Kong Jockey Club Hall - is always an opportunity to create much needed visibility for women leaders in Hong Kong by creating an opportunity to connect face-to-face with Board Directors, CEOs and senior executives of Hong Kong’s leading companies.
2023 was also a a busy year with monthly calls and many guests:
Jan: Natalie Marko, a Managing Director and the Global Head of Digital and Data Strategy for Financial Markets at Standard Chartered Bank, shared with us the recent gender data implementation in banks to resolve the lack of supply side data in banking. In fact, data and disclosure are needed not only to solve financial issues, but also to narrow the gender gap, and provide a new growth commercial strategy for banks. Natalie’s slides from the meeting are available here.
Mar: Christine Loh, the former environmental secretary of HK, now a professor at HKUST joined us for a fireside chat about Hong Kong board diversity and female executive pipeline issues. She shared her experience, the role of women being a chair, dealing with geopolitical complexities, and, of course, the challenges of net zero in China.
January 5, 2023, we are thrilled to announce our newest signatory to the Investor Initiative: Impact Asset Management, the specialist asset manager investing in the opportunities arising from the transition to a more sustainable global economy.
2022 has been a busy year with monthly calls and many guests:
Feb: Alice Au from Spencer Stuart with Irene Li share their wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry and explained the recruiting of board directors, as well as their views on the female director pipeline in Hong Kong.
June: Ginny Wilmerding, a Hong Kong-based Partner at FGS Global - strategic advisors to the stakeholder economy -and an independent director on the board of Techtronic Industries (HK.0669, a member of the Hang Seng 50) - a global cordless power tool and outdoor equipment company focused on clean tech innovationsharing - shared with us her way to a Hang Seng Index member board, her experience on NGO and corporate boards, and her thoughts on diversity and corporate governance.
Sep: Prof Sam Garg who is a Liwei Huang Associate Professor of Business (Entrepreneurship and Strategy) at HKUST Business School in Hong Kong. Sam's research is at the intersection of governance and high growth technology firms, and he shared with us a very interesting review of the available data on board quality, composition, and the challenges of parsing data on boards, as well as various other aspects and bias around board diversity.
Nov: Aniela Unguresan, the Founder of the EDGE Certified Foundation -the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality- gave us an insight as to how Edge helps companies to evaluate and attain the standards for gender equality across the board, how skills from other regions, companies or industries are transferable and relevant.
Please reach out if you want to join our monthly calls, send an email to info@boarddiversityhk.org.
30% Club Boardroom Lunch on Friday, June 17, 2022 - As you may know, TWF and 30% Club Hong Kong have long been advocates for greater board diversity which we consider to not only be an equity issue but also a key driver for better business outcomes as well as good governance. We are now at a pivotal moment for board diversity following recent regulatory reforms which will lead to significant opportunities for more diverse boards in Hong Kong over the next three years. The 30% Club Boardroom Lunch is a unique and exclusive event which brings together accomplished and highly qualified women leaders with Board Directors and C-suite members from leading local and international companies, and their advisors, for simulated discussions on topical issues facing boards today. Please see the video with the opening remarks from Nicolas Aguzin, the CEO of HKEx.
May 5, 2022, we are thrilled to announce our newest signatory to the Investor Initiative: Fidelity International Ltd, the global asset management, investment solutions and pension administration services provider.
March 8, 2022, we are thrilled to announce on the International Women’s Day 2022 a new signatory of the Initiative: HSBC Asset Management, the global investment manager.
December 13, 2021 – 30% Club Hong Kong and The Women’s Foundation (TWF) welcome the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEX) release of Consultation Conclusions on its Review of the Corporate Governance Code and Related Listing Rules. After an open consultation process, the HKEX is putting in place key reforms that will improve board gender diversity in the short to medium term. Read the full 30% Club HK and TWF press release.
December 2021, we are pleased to share that the Board Diversity Investor Initiative is now officially the 30% Club Hong Kong Investor Group. We have been working closely with the 30% Club Hong Kong Chapter since inception, and the decision was formally approved by the 30% Club Hong Kong Chapter Steering Committee on November 16, 2021.
July 23, 2021, we are thrilled to announce a new signatory of the Initiative: J.P. Morgan Asset Management, the global investment manager.
The time for action is now. We welcome Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEx) Consultation Paper on the Review of the Corporate Governance Code, covering a range of important corporate governance issues, including board gender diversity, and addressing a number of our long term advocacy areas. Single gender boards will no longer be acceptable (with a 3-year transition period) and companies are asked to set targets and timelines for gender diversity at board level and across the workforce. Signatories are strongly encouraged to submit both organization's and individual responses before June 18th. See more details in our May 2021 newsletter and
Our most recent newsletters are here: March 2021, January 2021, April 2021 and May 2021.
March 8, 2021, on the International Women's Day 2021, 2 articles around Hong Kong and our effort to look at:
Bloomberg today's article 'China’s Hottest Companies Are Run by Old-School All-Male Boards', a good summary of where we stand in Hong Kong regarding gender diversity on corporate boards, including quotes from our co-founder Nasrine Ghozali from Oasis, Amar Gill from BlackRock and supporter Teresa Ko from Freshfields.
Finantial Time’s article ‘HK-listed groups badly lag behind global peers on women directors‘ outlining that investors do increasingly prioritise board diversity in their investment decisions, voting policies and direct engagement, and , including quotes from our supporters Fiona Nott from The Women’s Foundation in Hong Kong, Janet Ledger from Community Busines and Teresa Ko from Freshfields.
February 9th, 2021, the important report from the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS) entitled “Missing Opportunities? A Review of Gender Diversity on Hong Kong Boards.” was released (together with the press releases). This is an excellent report which advocate for targets of 30% Women On Boards over the next six years – a big and important step for HKICS, many of whose members work with boards of listed companies with 2/3 of their members being women. We hope this report drives big change in 2021 particularly from the regulatory side and influence on companies. The 30% Club and one of our co-founders Pru Bennett contributed.
From the 30% Club perspective, the report reflects its new position that HKEx should set targets of 25% by 2025 and 30% within six years which should be then mandated by quotas if these targets are not met.
Jauary 6,2021, Teresa Ko from Freshfields, an active member of the 30% Club HK Chapter steering committee, pointed out in a Bloomberg TV interview, gender diversity on HK listed Boards is "an embarrassment"! Click here to watch the interview. During the interview, Teresa shared the most recent stats on diversity (as of July 2020) including the scary fact, if you rely on HKEx listing committee criteria alone to improve board diversity, that it would take 2,400 years before all the companies on our exchange have a 30% representation of women…
November 2020, MSCI issued their annual Women on Board Progress Report, and HK is on the spotlighth… “Hong Kong is among the few markets that had its number of all-male boards rise, from 32% in 2019 to 37% in 2020. “
August 15, 2019, Tencent announced that Professor Ke Yang has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director and a member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Company. This announcement is great news, as many of our signatories have been actively engaging with Tencent to encourage the company to improve board diversity. It’s great to see Tencent deliver on this message. We believe this step underscores the importance of our purpose, and is evidence that engaging with investee companies as shareholders to improve governance is paramount. Thank you for your support and efforts towards improving board diversity.
June 12, 2019, we are happy to announce a new signatory of the Initiative: Timbercreek, a global asset manager specializing in real estate and other alternative asset classes.
May 22, 2019, we had our semi-annual meeting, find out more here.
May 8, 2019, we shared with HKIFA members, mostly long-only fund managers, about the initiative.
March 29, 2019, Nasrine Ghozali, one of our founding members, talked about the Board Diversity initiative with World bachelor in Business “WBB” students of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
January 1, 2019, the market operator, HKEX, amended the Corporate Governance Code, introducing changes mainly to improve transparency and to keep the rules broadly in line with international best practice. One key change is an expectation to “promote board diversity, including gender diversity”. This will be achieved not through quotas or targets, as in many markets, but by the publication by each issuer of a diversity policy.
December 5, 2018, we are proud to announce that the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association (“HKIFA”) which is a non-profit-making industry organization that represents the fund management industry of Hong Kong is now a Sponsor of the Board Diversity Hong Kong Investor Initiative.
On November 8, 2018 was issued a press release about the Board Diversity Investor Initiative, contact info@boarddiversityhk.org for more information.
Echoing Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s strong call on all listed companies to appoint more women on their boards in her annual policy speech last month, TWF and the 30% Club Hong Kong have taken a fresh approach to address the lack of gender diversity on Hong Kong boards issue - presenting a light-hearted video “Flipping the Script”.