PAST EVENTS

30% Club Boardroom Lunch 2022

JUN. 7, 2022

VIRTUAL

The TWF & 30% Club Boardroom Series for Women Leaders aims to address the imbalance by building the pipeline of highly qualified women and connecting them to the right people. The annual Boardroom Lunch concludes the year with simulated boardroom discussions on key issues facing boards today, bringing together accomplished and aspiring Women to Watch face-to-face with Board Directors and C-suite members from leading local and international companies and their advisors.

Speakers: Shelley Boland, Head of Property, Consumer Private Business Banking & Asia Pacific, Co-Chair D&I Leaders Council Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank; Nicolas Aguzin, Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX); Cordelia Chung, INED, Hang Seng Bank; Irene Lee, Chair of Hysan Development Company Limited, Hang Seng Bank Ltd. & 30% Club Hong Kong Chapter; Xiao Bin Wang, Executive Director of China Resources Power Holdings Co., Ltd. & Independent Director of Hang Seng Bank Ltd. as well as our moderator Tim Payne, Senior Partner, Brunswick Group & Chair of 30% Club Hong Kong Steering Committee. They discussed recent HKEX regulatory reforms relating to board diversity.

Board Diversity HK S2 2019 meeting

With TBLI conference invitation
November 12, 2019, 1:30pm

The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong

We had our semi-annual Board Diversity Investors Initiative meeting on November 12th at 1:30pm at the ‘University of Chicago - Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation’. We were very generously offered an invitation for all members of our group to attend the TBLI CONFERENCE Asia in Hong Kong, Nov. 11-12! The conference was focusing on investment opportunities and latest trends in ESG & Impact Investing, and was an excellent opportunity to meet and hear from various investors, entrepreneurs, and ESG, CSR and SRI specialists.

Nasrine, Pru and Tim (from 3 founding signatories Oasis, Blackrock and Manulife AM) were speakers at the “Workshop D3: Board Diversity, why is it essential to achieve success?” together with Kaoru Kobu from Invesco. The workshop was moderated by Julie Muraco from TBLI. We gathered together after that panel for our semiannual meeting, which was less formal than our typical meetings and really focused on last diversity on board data as well as signatories updates. On that front, some key takeaways are:

• 2019 edition of the CS Gender 3000 : gender diversity in the boardroom worldwide has doubled during the decade to over 20%. Countries with a lower female representation in senior management and on boards were found to have a wider gender pay gap. The research concludes that diversity coincided with superior share-price performance, and higher “quality” factor when assessing the corporate-performance characteristics.

  
  
  

• BAML ESG from A to Z: a global primer issued on November 8, 2019.

  Board diversity signals better ROE… While performance results have varied over time, BAML found that companies with better scores on board diversity and management diversity saw consistently higher future ROEs than counterparts with lower scores. Companies with more diverse boards (score >50) had higher subsequent 1-year ROEs than companies with less diverse boards (score <50) every year since 2005. Board Diversity was an effective signal of future ROE in almost all sectors, except for Financials. Discretionary and Tech companies have historically been rewarded the most.

  Gender diversity = lower earnings risk On all three sub-pillar scores BAML analysed from Refinitiv (board diversity, company policies on diversity/inclusion, and women in management), companies with high ESG scores had lower earnings volatility than companies with low ESG scores on these metrics. Companies with >50 scores on board diversity have also seen consistently lower EPS volatility than companies with <50 scores, every year since 2005.

  Consistent premium for board diversity Excluding Financials, companies with 50 or higher scores on Board Diversity have traded at a (growing) premium on Price to Book, relative to companies with scores below 50 on Board Diversity.

  
  
  

• We should continue our effort as Board Diversity Investors Initiative signatories to present our updates on our engagements. It is essential that we keep sharing our experiences, findings and stats. Please use the Engagements Tracking Tool we have shared.

Thank you all for joining!

TWF’s Gender Equality Summit

sep. 27, 2019

HK Exchange connect hall

TWF's Gender Equality Summit was the first event of its kind focused on advancing gender equality in Hong Kong, and included Board Diversity as part of its aims.

30% Club 6th Boardroom Lunch 2018

sep. 6, 2019

asia society

TWF's flagship 30% Club Boardroom Lunch brought again accomplished and aspiring Women to Watch face-to-face with Board Directors and C-suite members from leading local and international companies and their advisors for simulated boardroom discussions on key issues facing boards today.
For more information please visit TWF 30% Club, 30% Club HK Chapter and 30% Club Boardroom Lunch links.

Board Diversity Investors Initiative semi-annual meeting

May 22, 2019

BlackRock office

We shared the latest developments, statistics and HKEx efforts around improving board diversity, as well as our own experiences and direct engagements with Hong Kong-listed companies on diversity. Thank you all for working for better governance!

On the update front, some key takeaways are:
- A recent MSCI report shows how progress on increasing the share of women on boards is taking much longer than anticipated, and that is true worldwide. 
Asian countries with a high prevalence of all-male boards include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. Together, these five economies were home to more than two-thirds of companies with all-male boards globally.

- Community Business reported that women represented 13.9% of Hang Seng Index (HSI) boards as of January 2, 2019. However, this has now dropped to just 13.1% as of April 1st, 2019!
During the first three months of 2019, zero female directors were appointed to HSI boards, while 14 men were appointed. 

- Hong Kong Exchange developments: Last summer Corporate Governance code changes were introduced the mandatory publication by each listed company of a diversity policy. On May 17th, 2019, HKEX released a new ESG Consultation and published new guidance to require additional disclosure on board gender diversity for new listing applicants, including how gender diversity of the board can be achieved in the case of a single-gender board.

We welcome very much these developments that introduce very early on the need for diversity for IPO applicants.

Several Board Diversity Investors Initiative signatories presented their updates on their engagements. It is essential that we share our experiences, findings and stats among our group. We encourage Signatories to use the Engagements Tracking Tool we have shared. It should be a useful tool for tracking your efforts and aggregating information on your engagements with companies, whether internally, or in external reports for third party organizations, such as the UNPRI.

Finally, for the first time we invited a special guest to join us and share a personal experience of the boardroom. We extend our gratitude to our very first special guest Sayuri Shirai for speaking with us about her amazing journey as a Bank of Japan Policy Board member and as an Independent Director of a Japanese listed company. How insightful and fascinating!

Please see the event slides here, as well as a slides from Hermes, one of our signatories, around their engagement and diversity targets here.

One of our co-founders, Pru Bennett, was advocating for better corporate governance and board diversity on Bloomberg TV. You can use the link { NEWS ON Pru Bennett <GO>} if you have Bloomberg terminal.

Board Diversity HKIFA session

MAY 8, 2019

OASIS office

Nasrine Ghozali and Pru Bennett exchanged about Board diversity, Corporate Governance, Stewardship, and Responsible Investment with Hong Kong Investment Funds Association members, i.e. mainly long-only managers.

Board Diversity HK kick-off meeting

Dec 12, 2018

BlackRock office

Signatories, Sponsors and Supporters met or dialed in at our first event. We had a great time exchanging ideas on many topics, including the best ways to engage on board diversity, both top-down (including potential group action) and bottom-up (e.g., individual engagement directly with corporates), with some actionable outcomes. We also established a Steering Committee. We thank these members for joining and dedicating time to our initiative:

• Pru Bennett, Blackrock, Co-chair

• Nasrine Ghozali, Oasis, Co-chair

• Christine Chow, Hermes

• Ronnie Lim, Robeco

• Veronique J A Lafon-Vinais, HKUST

Additionally, Jenny Jia will help as Secretary, and Taylor Hall from Oasis will help with PR.  

HKIRA 10th Anniversary Summit

Dec. 6-7, 2018

3pm-3:40pm BOARD DIVERSITY IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY Panel

with Angelina Kwan (COO at Bitmex), Fiona Nott (CEO at TWF), Nasrine Ghozali (CRO at Oasis Management) and Sarah Leung (HK Exchange)

“Diversity should not be a box-ticking exercise." Thanks to #HKIRA for hosting a great panel on gender diversity in finance.

HKIRA is a professional association comprising investor relations practitioners and corporate officers responsible for communications between corporate management and the investment community. HKIRA advocates the setting of international standards in IR education, advances the best IR practices and meets the professional development needs of those interested in pursuing the investor relations profession.

The 2-day Summit is the largest IR event held in Hong Kong and APAC. The Summit brings together participants from leading listed companies, international corporates, investors, research analysts, finance professionals, officials of regulatory bodies, as well as representatives from worldwide IR associations and stock exchanges. For more information, please visit http://hkira.com/2018/.

100 Women in Finance 6th Hong Kong Gala

Nov. 8, 2018

100 Women in Finance, a global, practitioner-driven non-profit organization that serves more than 15,000 professionals in the finance and alternative investment industries, announced at its annual Hong Kong Gala that it successfully raised HKD 3.7 million in gross proceeds in support of the Changing Young Lives Foundation “CYLF.” CYLF is a Hong Kong charity dedicated to rewriting the life stories of thousands of underprivileged children and marginalized youth in Hong Kong and the Mainland by providing them with 100% free of charge centre-based and outreach programs in education, talent development and self-empowerment, unleashing their potential to maximize their potential.

The 6th Annual 100WF Hong Kong Gala was held November 8 in Maxim’s Palace City Hall in Hong Kong, with the support of more than 300 leaders from the financial services and alternative investment industry. One of our founding signatories, Pru Bennett, Managing Director and Head of BlackRock Investment Stewardship for Asia Pacific, received 100WF’s 2018 Asian Industry Leadership Award.

30% Club 6th Boardroom Lunch 2018

sep. 21, 2018

asia society

TWF's flagship 30% Club Boardroom Lunch brings accomplished and aspiring Women to Watch face-to-face with Board Directors and C-suite members from leading local and international companies, and their advisors for simulated boardroom discussions on key issues facing boards today. This flagship event aims to break down some of the closed circle networks which are often used to fill board appointments, and provide an opportunity for women to showcase their expertise and credentials for board positions in front of senior company representatives. The 30% Club Boardroom Series is composed of educational workshops and networking events with key Board Directors, Executive Search firms and peers, and offers a more sustained and results-focused programme to help achieve the collective goal of increasing the number of women on boards. For more information please visit https://twfhk.org/30-club.

During the Club Boardroom Lunch, Irene Lee, Chairman of Hysan Development Company Limited, referenced the Board Diversity Investor initiative and shared a preview of the “Flipping the Script” video, from the 30% Club Hong Kong and The Women’s Foundation, featuring some of Hong Kong’s most prominent women business leaders to highlight the lack of gender diversity on Hong Kong boards. Videos are available here:

English Version: https://youtu.be/vWHDeNno2bI

Cantonese Version: https://youtu.be/yOnew4iXKUI

Sohn Hong Kong

May 30, 2018

The Sohn Hong Kong Conference presented by the Karen Leung Foundation investor conference is an investor conference that brings together some of the most successful investors in the region and globally to present their investment ideas and raise money to support gynecological and pediatric cancer awareness, prevention and treatment.

Board Diversity HK co-founders Pru Bennett, Emily Chew, and Nasrine Ghozali debuted the Investor Initiative at Sohn Hong Kong, encouraging investors in Hong Kong-listed equities to address standards of gender inclusion as part of their security analysis and corporate due diligence.