The Hampton-Alexander Review published its third annual report on 13 November. The report found that a quarter of FTSE 350 companies have only one woman on their board, described as “one & done” boards, and there remain five all-male boards. The five companies are Millennium & Copthorne, Daejan Holdings, Amigo Holdings, Herald Investment, and JP Morgan Japanese Investment - although Amigo Holdings has appointed a woman to its board since the analysis was undertaken. This means half the appointments to board positions will have to be filled by women over the next two years to hit the target of 33% representation of women on boards by 2020. The report did, however, find that the FTSE 100 is on track to hit the target.

According to Minerva Analytics’ data average female board representation in the FTSE 100 currently stands at 29.6% and at 23.9% in the FTSE 250. Both FTSE 350-listed companies holding AGMs this week, plumbing and heating product distributor Ferguson and homeware retailer Dunelm, have met the 2020 target early. Ferguson has three women on its board, representing 33% of directors, and Dunelm also has three women directors, representing 37.5% of its board.

A recent analysis undertaken by Minerva found that on average women account for just under a quarter (24.48%) of board roles in Europe with France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and Finland the top performers. Notably, France was the only market to have met the European Commission’s 2012 proposed target of 40% of non-executive roles to be held by women by 2018.

Governance Issues at AGMs