Episode Summary
As today’s boards look to recruit new areas of expertise—from ecommerce and digital marketing to data security—the candidate pool is growing inevitably younger. As a result, we’re seeing a significant increase in the number of first-time directors, which presents a wide array of opportunities and challenges for the corporate governance world.
In this episode of Inside America’s Boardrooms, Caroline Tsay (35-year-old board member and chair of the Next Gen Board Leaders Advisory Council) and Julie Daum (Leader of Spencer Stuart’s North American Board Practice) discuss several trends related to age diversity and emerging areas of board oversight.
Over the past couple years, we’ve seen that a third of new [S&P 500] directors had never been in a boardroom before. This year, it will be closer to half, so there’s a real shift. The other thing that’s happening… many companies now think of diversity as also age diversity… It’s important to have people who have current experience in [the boardroom]—so we’re seeing younger and younger directors being recruited.
Institutional investors are also becoming a significant force in the push for age-diverse boards. As CalSTRS Aeisha Mastagni explains, board member ages and tenures should fall along a spectrum so as to ensure board continuity, stability, and ultimately long-term value creation for the company.
Indeed, Next Gen Board Leaders was launched in response to various forces at play in today’s corporate governance landscape. In this episode, Tsay and Daum answer:
- What trends is Spencer Stuart seeing related to age diversity on boards?
- What factors are driving boards to seek out younger candidates?
- What does the Next Gen Board Leaders community hope to accomplish?
About Inside America’s Boardrooms: Inside America’s Boardrooms is a weekly web show produced by Boardroom Resources and hosted by TK Kerstetter. For more information about the various content formats supported by Boardroom Resources, click here.
Which Digital Skill Sets Are in High Demand?
As Demand for Next-Gen Directors Rises, So Do Board Retirement Ages
PwC Directors Survey: 90% Say Age is Important to Diversity of Thought