More first-timers and more women are joining the upper ranks of Britain’s biggest companies, offering fresh evidence that the make-up of blue-chip boardrooms is changing.
Almost half — 47% — of first-time appointments to the FTSE 350 were female in 2012, compared with just 11% in 2007. These included Lena Wilson at Intertek and Deirdre Mahlan at Experian.
The findings from the recruitment group Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann also recorded a 7% rise in the number of positions going to first-time appointees in 2012 against five years previously.
However the research, which covers 2012, contrasts with the latest figures on women on boards, which show that the drive to see more women on FTSE 100 boards stalled this year. Only 12% of directors appointed in the two months to May were women, down from 50% a year ago, according to the Professional Boards Forum.
The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is still 17.4% — up from 12.5% at the time of a Government report by the former trade minister Lord Davies, which set a target of 25%, but it hasn’t moved since August last year.
