Diversity

In a year that has seen very public reversals of international DE&I policies, Spencer Stuart continues to believe that boards benefit from diverse perspectives, leading to better debate, better decisions and resulting in better financial outcomes and performance. Diversity manifests itself in a variety of different ways and there are many lenses that can be applied to defining what constitutes the right approach to diversity.

The two most straightforward, easy to track and palpable diversity criteria are arguably gender and place of origin. For the former, as no SMI board refers to non-binary members, we shall frame the discussion in terms of male and female. For the latter, we have established that the distinction between Swiss, Swiss-double citizen, and foreign director captures an initial level of complexity which is insightful when analysing trends and talent.

Women on boards

In Switzerland, government legislation allows us to consistently track measurable indicators. In 2020, the country’s National Council approved a legal amendment to board gender targets, establishing a gender quota for boards (30% women) and executive committees (20% women) for publicly listed companies with more than 250 employees.

Gender metrics

	Average/total	Men	Women
Board members	206	131 (64%)	75 (36%)
Age	61.5	62.5	59.7
Tenure on board	6.6	7.5	5
External commitments	1.9	1.8	2.2
New directors appointed this year (% of total)	7%	60%	40%
First-time directors appointed this year (% of total)	2%	50%	50%

The increase in the percentage of women on SMI boards is not primarily due to a disproportionate appointment of women. New appointments reflect only 40%, which is below gender parity. The growth is better explained by a generational shift, with men comprising 15 out of the 17 departing NEDs.

Although there have historically been significantly fewer women than men on boards internationally, women board members are in higher demand than their male counterparts, with an average of 2.2 external commitments compared to 1.8 for men.

Women tend to have a younger average age and shorter tenure. The pipeline for board member talent remains more mature for men than for women. However, it is notable that the ratio of male to female first-time board members — defined as those without prior experience on listed boards — was 1:1 this year.

Women representation by role

When examining the roles of women on SMI boards, the disparity between the overall ratio of women and their representation on two of the arguably most influential positions is striking: only 5% of SMI chairs are women, and just 24% of nomination committee chairs (including those committees that combine nominating with other responsibilities) are held by women.

This is particularly significant given that nomination committees play a crucial role in planning for the future, focusing on the next generation of board members and overseeing long-term strategies for chair succession.

Chair appointments

In each of the last two years, three new chairs were appointed at SMI companies. All three appointees were men.

Foreign directors

We define foreign directors as those whose nationality differs from that of the company. Since Swiss dual-national directors of SMI companies are considered Swiss by some and foreign by others, we have chosen to examine this group separately.

Overall, 38% of SMI board members hold a Swiss passport, with 29% of these being Swiss dual citizens. US citizens are often represented, along with various European nationalities. Non-Europeans outside the US account for just 10% of all SMI board members.