Exclusive | Hong Kong-listed companies added women to boards in 2020 at highest rate in four years, report says
- Women accounted for 24 per cent of new directors added to the boards of city’s biggest publicly traded companies in 2020, according to Heidrick & Struggles
- Hong Kong still lacks director diversity; 37 per cent of boards were all-male last year
Hong Kong’s biggest listed companies added women to their boards in 2020 at their highest level in four years, global recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles said.
The top 50 companies on the Hang Seng Index filled 24 per cent of their 42 open director seats with women last year, according to the latest Heidrick & Struggles board monitor report. That compared with just 6 per cent in 2019, 5 per cent in 2018, and 20 per cent in 2017.
Companies are getting the message as they hear more from customers, regulators and investors about what may have been dismissed as “noise” in the past, according to David Hui, partner in charge of Heidrick & Struggles’ Hong Kong office and regional managing partner for the company’s Asia-Pacific and Middle East industrial practice.
“How that translates into action still takes time. Knowing a problem and solving a problem are two different things,” Hui said. “Hong Kong is not a fast-moving place at the boardroom level traditionally. It’s a very stable place. Corporate life is very stable here.”
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By comparison, women filled 41 per cent of open board seats in the United States last year and a third of open director roles went to women in Singapore in 2020, according to Heidrick & Struggles.