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| Best Practices |
Diverse Approaches
Suzanne McGee
03/01/2005
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The recruiting world is evolving to respond to the growing complexity of finding directors of all kinds. To identify promising minority candidates, Spencer Stuart’s Daum studies magazine articles, and asks the companies she works with if they have any promising women or minorities they are grooming for larger responsibilities and whose professional development might be enhanced by working on an outside board. One strategy for finding competent candidates is to reach out to groups like Martinez’s HACR, the Executive Leadership Council (African-Americans), the Committee of 100 (Chinese-Americans), the Directors Council (Hispanics) and Catalyst (women). Some of these organizations not only identify promising midcareer executives, but also offer training or mentoring programs so that these individuals gain more understanding of boardroom issues.
Ironically, once inside a boardroom, discrimination that may have dogged a person throughout a career seems to vanish, notes Vilma Martinez, founder of the executive recruiting company Directors Council and a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. Once someone reaches the pinnacle of corporate achievement—being named to a board—she says other directors seem to become color- and gender-blind. Colleagues, she points out, “actively look for your contributions; they assume they will be of value. Your views are solicited and listened to; you are seen as an accomplished individual and not as a token.” Recruiters agree, noting that in the current regulatory climate, CEOs and directors do not want to be seen as simply “talking to themselves,” in Shultz’s words. “There is a growing sense that there needs to be diversity in order for boards to be accountable to their shareholders and stakeholders,” she adds. “Companies that resist that trend are going to be in the minority in the 21st century.” Suzanne McGee is a New York-based freelance writer who specializes in financial markets, philanthropy, corporate finance, corporate governance and the art world. Illustrations by Ken Orvidas
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