Moderator Advocate Jessica Roland, right, with the speakers at the IoD seminar on women in the boardroom. Left to right: Charles Clarke, Michelle Johansen and Andreas Tautscher. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 1114352)

HAVING more women on the boards of companies would boost their effectiveness, the audience at the most recent Institute of Directors winter seminar series has heard.

Both panellists and the audience gave examples and highlighted a series of advantages associated with having a more diverse board make-up, from an improved bottom line to better corporate governance.

But they also accepted that a number of obstacles still stood in the way of getting more women in the boardroom, in particular ensuring that a supply of capable women was available.

Michelle Johansen, of Johansen Executive Coaching and the founder of the Women’s Development Forum in Guernsey, said the recent Lord Davies report in the UK, which said FTSE 100 companies should aim for a minimum of 25% female board representation by 2015, had brought a fresh impetus to the issue, but there was still a lot of work to be done to achieve those figures.

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