Research conducted by Heidrick & Struggles, a premier provider of executive search, leadership consulting and culture shaping worldwide, highlights the persistent under-representation of Hispanic directors appointed to boardrooms within the Fortune 500.
Here are the facts:
– Hispanics accounted for just 4% of new directors named to Fortune 500 Boards in 2015 – versus 17% in overall U.S. population. The gap of under-representation has widened over past seven years.
– Pipeline remains a critical issue: Fewer than 2% of CEOs in Fortune 500 today are Hispanic.
– Heidrick & Struggles 2016 Board Monitor also indicates progress slowed for women in the boardroom; African-American director appointments increased but they remain underrepresented. Heidrick & Struggles 2016 Board Monitor also showed that the percentages of female director appointments has plateaued. African-Americans continue to be underrepresented in the boardroom as well.
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For the seventh consecutive year, the percent of directors of Hispanic origin elected to Fortune 500 boards was sharply lower than the overall representation of Hispanics in the U.S. population. Of 399 new directors appointed by Fortune 500 companies in 2015, only 16 were Hispanic—just 4.0 percent. Over the past seven years, an average of 4.7 percent of new directors have been Hispanic and there has been no discernible upward trend. As the Hispanic share of the U.S. population has grown during those years, the gap of underrepresentation in the boardroom has widened.
“The percentage of Hispanic directors appointed to boards has not improved over the past seven years,” said Bonnie Gwin, vice chairman and co-managing partner of Heidrick & Struggles’ Global CEO & Board Practice, “We live in a hyper-connected world, and global and domestic markets are changing at a rapid pace—the boardroom needs to reflect that level of change, too.”
“The United States has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, only Mexico’s is greater. U.S. Latinos collectively represent the world’s 14th largest economy, yet Hispanic directors continue to be largely absent from the corporate boardroom in America,” said Cid Wilson, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR). “The business case for appointing Hispanic directors has become even more compelling today. Companies need to do more to recruit Latinos into the boardroom if they are to compete successfully for the growing Latino consumers and future talent.”
