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
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”.