Board diversity
Bringing a balance to governance
Our Non-Executive Directors come from broad industry and professional backgrounds, with varied experience and expertise aligned to the needs of our business.
The Board appreciates the benefits of diversity in all its forms, within its own membership and at all levels across the Group.
The Board promotes diversity and encourages initiatives to improve diversity in senior management roles, in areas including gender, ethnicity and nationality.
Women represent 36% of our Board and five different nationalities are represented among our Board members: American (3), Brazilian (1), British (4), Canadian (1) and French (2). Additionally, women represent 8% of our Management Board.
The Nominations Committee is responsible for regularly reviewing the composition of both the Board and Management Board to ensure both boards have an appropriate balance of skills, expertise and knowledge, and ensuring that all appointments are made on merit against objective criteria and with due regard for the benefits of diversity.
Our Board Diversity Policy sets out the Board’s commitment to the following objectives:
- considering all aspects of diversity when reviewing the composition of, and succession planning for, the Board and Management Board
- considering a wide pool of candidates of both genders for appointment to the Board
- maintaining at least 30% representation of women on our Board, with the ambition of progressing towards further gender balance
- giving preference, where appropriate, to engaging executive search firms that are accredited under the Standard and Enhanced Codes of Conduct for Executive Search Firms, which include gender diversity
- Supporting the oversight of the development of a pipeline of diverse, high-performing potential Executive Directors, Management Board members and other senior managers.
We are a diverse employer. There were 141 nationalities represented at management level within our Group in 2021. The proportion of women in management roles was 39% and 27% on senior leadership teams – we are committed to increase these by 2025 to 45% and 40%, respectively. To achieve this, we are focused on recruiting, developing and retaining the best female talent.