ONE of Guernsey’s leading female company directors has backed a call from a UK Treasury secretary to see more women in the boardroom. Former Investec managing director Carol Goodwin now holds more than a dozen non-executive directorships, including some with Investec.

She has long been passionate about the need for diversity in the boardroom and has contributed to a UK Department of Trade and Industry publication calling for more.

And she believes that the States of Guernsey could offer an example.

‘The value of diversity in the boardroom I believe should not be underestimated,’ she said. ‘It provides boards with the scope to consider a wider range of perspectives and generate richer, more informed discussion on the issues facing a company.

‘Diversity isn’t about tokenism. It’s about analysing where the company wants to be, identifying gaps in the skill mix on the board and then thinking creatively about how to achieve the result that is needed.’

Kitty Ussher, new economic secretary to the Treasury, has said that she believes that companies without women directors ‘are at a competitive disadvantage’.

She told the Financial Times that the under-representation of women at the top of UK companies had been raised with her.

‘My view on this has always been the same, which is that companies will do best if they recruit the best talent and they keep the best talent,’ she said.

‘If they are not keeping some of their talent pool, then that puts them at a disadvantage.

‘If I was a CEO and I found people, predominantly, but not totally, mothers and parents of young children, deciding to leave at a certain stage in their life, I would say: ﾓWhy are we losing the talent?ﾔ.’

Ms Goodwin said that the UK Government had already accepted that it had a role to play, with stated intentions to lead by example and set the standard for more effective and diverse boards through the public appointments system.

‘I hate tokenism or quotas, but I think that the States could do more to lead by example,’ she said. ‘There are no female chief officers at present.’

Ms Goodwin, who has 20 years of boardroom experience, the six most recent as a non-executive, said that boards in Guernsey and the UK were not reflecting the diversity of those succeeding in senior management and executive positions.

As a result the island was not making best use of the talent around, with real and perceived barriers to more diverse non-executive director recruitment.

Female directors in the local Institute of Directors account for little more than 10% of the membership, though it has been growing.

Ms Goodwin called on companies to foster a ‘relentless meritocracy’ in the appointment of directors, ensuring that the board works effectively and companies can create conditions to maximise sustained success.

‘All this underlines the importance of board appointments, composition, diversification, professional development and evaluation,’ she said.

‘The best companies are already operating on this basis.

‘They recognise it’s not about conformance, but rather performance.

‘It’s not about ticking boxes, it’s about getting the right people to make companies perform better.’