Corporate Governance – Board Composition and Quality Board Members

Over the coming decade, the most important aspect of running corporations will continue to be the Board of Directors. The spotlight has been on diversity and gender balance but Canada still lags behind other countries in both of these areas. Even though research tells us that balanced boards make better decisions and have higher collective intelligence, the scales have not yet reached equilibrium. It simply makes good business sense to have gender equity on a board. But unfortunately, as CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) announced that Statistics Canada stated in May of 2019 that less than 20% of corporate board members in Canada are women. You can imagine how much lower that is for our indigenous people or people of colour, LGBQ+, or the disabled.

Equally important is board composition from a competence perspective. Does your board have the right skill sets to lead the necessary Committees, understand the strategic vision of the corporation and the willingness to ask hard questions and engage in positive collaborative discussion with the executive team to ensure goals, milestones and objectives are being met to move the company forward?

As a Certified Corporate Director by the Institute of Corporate Directors of Canada, and with extensive experience and interest in all topics related to Boards, I will be writing a short blog each week to share with you some of my thoughts and insights from my experience and research.