News 9th March 2021 53 seconds read

The Times | Britain’s biggest companies are left without a single black leader

The Green Park Business Leaders Index 2021 revealed for the first time in the six years of analysis there are no black Chairs, CEOs or CFOs in the FTSE 100.

The research also found that only ten of 297 (3.4%) leaders in the Top 3 roles have ethnic minority backgrounds, the same proportion as when Green Park began their FTSE analysis in 2014.

As a result of these findings Green Park is calling for action from organisations to tackle issues facing race equality, not only because it is the fair and moral thing to do, but because the success of British business post Brexit depends on it.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of Green Park comments that candidates may be recruited as “diversity window-dressing” but left out of the leadership teams key decision making. They propose the “Green Park Rule” where any spending decision above 1% of turnover must be made by a diverse group; if this is not possible, it should always be reported to the board and noted in the company’s annual report.

Mr Philips goes on to say “Business leaders have to understand: nobody cares how much they care, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what they do”

The above is a summary of an article published in The Times February 3^th 2021. For the full article, please click here.