Financial Times: FTSE 100 could take until 2066 to meet diversity target, report finds

At the current rate of change, it will be 2066 before the FTSE 100 meets the diversity targets laid out by the Parker Review.

Executive search and interim management firm Green Park, have launched a report reviewing the ethnocultural and gender diversity of FTSE 100 leadership. It finds that, almost half (48) of FTSE100 companies still have no non-white board or executive committee members.

At this pace, where just one FTSE 100 company a year is adding ethnocultural diversity to their board, Green Park warns that the FTSE 100 will fail the Parker Review target, requiring all FTSE 100 companies to have at least one ethnic minority board member by the year 2021.

This is further exacerbated by the lack of progress at the leadership pipeline level which has stagnated. However, Green Park’s Leadership 10,000 report did have some good news. Female representation has increased with the number of women in Non-Executive Director roles rising to 38.9%.

Green Park’s CEO, Raj Tulsiani, said: “The corporate pipeline is slowly adding women to the mainstream – but largely still only white women; and the pipeline marked “black men” remains resolutely empty. As a result, overall progress is stalling, and in practice it may mean that we risk failing to hit the Parker target.”

This article was published in the Financial Times on the 6th of November, 2018. For the full FT article, please click here. 

To download the full Leadership 10,000 2018 report, please click here.