2019 Switzerland Spencer Stuart Board Index

The 2019 Switzerland Spencer Stuart Board Index focuses on the 47 companies that comprise the Swiss Market Index (SMI) and the SMI Mid Index (SMIM), providing an overview of board governance issues such as board size and composition, committee structure, director tenure and remuneration.

Our purpose is to provide business leaders with a snapshot of current practice on Swiss boards. In addition to detailed information on each SMI 20 and SMI Mid company, we examine year-on-year changes, as well as trends between 2014-2019 on a wide range of governance measures.

This edition includes an article titled “Overseeing board evaluations” in which we provide five key principles that will guide boards in conducting an effective evaluation.

Highlights from the 2019 Switzerland Spencer Stuart Board Index include:

• 26% of directors on SMI 20 boards are women; the proportion on SMI Mid boards is slightly lower at 24.3%.
• Just 8.6% of senior managers (executive committee members) of SMI and SMI Mid companies are women – 33 out of 385 executives.
• 53.8% of directors across both indices are foreign. Among SMI 20 boards it is 58.1%.
• The average retainer for SMI 20 directors has risen by just 4% over the past five years to CHF 214'053. The average total pay for SMI 20 non-executive directors is CHF 321’475 compared with CHF 208’043 for SMI Mid directors.