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5, 10 and 15-year trends

2025 UK Spencer Stuart Board Index

The 2025 UK Spencer Stuart Board Index is a comprehensive review of governance practice in the largest 150 companies in the FTSE rankings by market value at 30 April 2025. The chart below provides a unique perspective on the extent to which a range of key metrics have changed over the past five and ten years.

5, 10 and 15-year trends

Board composition
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
Average board size 10.3 10.1 10.3 10 2% 0% 3%
Independent directors 93% 94% 94% 94% -1.3% -1% -1.1%
Combined CEO/chair 1% 0% 1% 1% n/a -49.6% -49.2%
Senior independent director 99% 97% 94% n/a 1.7% 5.4% n/a
Age
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
Average age non-executives 61.1 60.3 59.4 59 1.3% 2.9% 3.6%
Average age executives 54.9 54.1 52.6 51 1.5% 4.4% 7.6%
Foreign directors
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
% foreign directors: all 37% 30% 32% 24% 23.3% 15.3% 54.2%
Boards with at least one foreign non-executive director 87% 77% 77% 79% 12.9% 13.8% 10.5%
Boards with at least one foreign executive director 45% 37% 46% 50% 22.1% -2% -10.6%
Boards with at least one foreign director 89% 79% 79% 77% 11.9% 11.9% 15.2%
Women directors
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
% women directors: all 44% 34% 23% 12% 29.6% 90.4% 280.9%
% women directors: non-executives 54% 46% 28% 14% 18.6% 90.5% 278%
% women directors: executives 19% 13% 8% 5% 54% 146% 331%
Female chair 17% 5% 4% 1% 221% 325% 1178%
Female CEO 10% 5% 5% 5% 88.7% 87.6% 114%
Companies with at least one female director 100% 100% 57% 68% 0% 75.4% 47.1%
Committees
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
% boards with more than 3 committees 69% 55% 57% 43% 24.8% 21.9% 60.5%
Tenure
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
Average # of years' tenure: non-executives 4.3 4.3 4 5.6 0% 7.5% -23.2%
Remuneration
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
Average non-executive retainer £82,314 £69,606 £63,229 £55,750 18.3% 30.2% 47.6%
Average (part-time) chair retainer £452,069 £411,406 £368,292 £334,000 9.9% 22.7% 35.4%
Outside commitments
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
% chairs with outside quoted board 62% 61% 76% 75% 1.6% -17.9% -17.3%
% CEOs with outside quoted board 27% 31% 40% 41% -11.5% -32.7% -34.1%
%CFOs with outside quoted board 32% 28% 26% 41% 15.1% 24% -22%
Board evaluation and meetings
2025 2020 2015 2010 5 year change 10 year change 15 year change
% boards external evaluation 39% 46% 43% 13% -15.2% -9.3% 200%
Average number of board meetings 7.5 7.7 7.7 8 -2.6% -2.6% -6.3%
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