Statement on Women on Boards and Gender Diversity
Lord Davies, in his February 2011 report, ‘Women on Boards’, encouraged the chairman of FTSE 350 companies to promote greater female representation on corporate boards. The Board reviewed the recommendations of the Davies Report as part of a wider discussion on diversity and endorsed and supported its aims, objectives and recommendations at the time, and continues to do so today.
In line with the UK Governance Code, the Company continues to make Board appointments on merit, against objective criteria and with due regard for the benefits of diversity on the Board, including gender. We recognise that boards perform better when they include quality people from different continents, cultures, genders and perspectives. The Board continues to comprise a majority of independent directors and we remain committed to ensuring that the Board retains an appropriate balance of skills, diversity, experience and personalities. In particular, we have made progress in addressing the under-representation of women on the Board, up from 1/11 (9%) in 2013 to 2/10 (20%) at the end of 2014 and increasing to 22% following Michel Contie’s retirement at the 2015 AGM,
The importance of diversity to the Group extends well beyond the boardroom. Operating in industries in which women have historically been poorly represented, we have made good progress in providing an environment in which women can show their full potential. Women represented 33% of the Group’s Executive Committee and 23% of the group of 50 senior executives at the end of 2014. Encouragingly, our recent intakes of engineering graduates reflect a sustained increase in the numbers of women choosing to pursue careers in energy services with Wood Group and we will work to develop this pool of talent to provide our business leaders of the future.
Chair, John Wood Group PLC