Missing Opportunities? A Review of Gender Diversity on Hong Kong Boards

Women are massively underrepresented on the boards of Hong Kong listed companies. Only one in seven of all directors of listed companies are women ; nearly one-third of boards include no women at all. When it comes to female representation on boards, Hong Kong’s performance trails many other markets and it is inconsistent with our status as a major  international financial centre.

This matters. It matters because gender board diversity is well recognised as contributing to more effective boards and better corporate performance. It matters as an issue of fairness and equality. It matters because Hong Kong companies are missing the opportunity to make full use of the talent available to serve on their boards and our women are missing the opportunity to develop their careers and serve our corporate community. And it matters to our Institute as a promoter of excellence in governance and as a diverse organisation ourselves - two-thirds of our members are women.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, and to accompany the issue of “Missing Opportunities? A Review of Gender diversity on Hong Kong Boards”, the Institute will be hosting a seminar to discuss :-

• the status of board gender diversity in HK 
• the implications of HK’s performance in this area
• the options to achieve better diversity
• the actions needed to bring those options to reality

This seminar will be relevant to all our members and students, and to every governance professional in HK. The seminar will be chaired by our President, Gillian Meller  FCG FCS. Our speakers and panellists will include leading governance figures in HK , bringing a wide range of experience and perspectives, including that of a chairman, directors, investors and NGOs.

Speakers include:

• Ms Gillian Meller FCG FCS, President, HKICS (Chair)
• Mr Amar Gill, Managing Director and Head of Investment Stewardship, APAC, BlackRock
• Ms Teresa Ko BBS JP, Former Chairman, Listing Committee of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; Partner and China Chairman, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Mr Nicholas Allen, Chairman & Independent Non-Executive Director, Link Asset Management Limited
• Ms Jenny Chiu, Executive Director / Senior Director – Human Resources, New World Development Company Limited
• Ms Edith Shih FCG (CS, CGP) FCS (CS, CGP) (PE), Immediate Past International President, The Chartered Governance Institute; Past President, The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries; and Executive Director and Company Secretary, CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (Panellist)
• Ms Fiona Nott, Chief Executive Officer, The Women’s Foundation (Panellist)
• Ms Janet Ledger, Chief Operating Officer, Community Business (Panellist)
• Ms Lau Ka Shi BBS FCG(CS, CGP) FCS(CS, CGP), Managing Director & CEO, BCT Group (BCT Financial Ltd & Bank Consortium Trust Co Ltd) (Panellist)
• Mr Neil Waters, Consultant, Egon Zehnder (Panellist)
• Ms Pru Bennett, Senior Advisor, Brunswick Group (Panellist)
• Mr Tim Payne, Senior Partner, Brunswick Group; Chair, Steering Committee, 30% Club Hong Kong (Panellist)

Register now