Atlanta, Ga. – The 15th annual
Board of Directors Network study shows that important numbers have reversed the
trend of the past 2 years. Of Georgia’s 175 public companies, 49% have one or
more woman on their board of directors, up two percentage points from 2006, and
equal to the highest ever reported. Women hold 106 of the 1,435 board seats in
Georgia up from 101 in last year’s study. “BDN is encouraged to see progress in
the representation of women on Georgia’s public company boards, believing that
it is good for corporate governance”, said Kelly Gay, President of BDN.
Fortune 500 ranks include 15 Georgia companies. Of these 15 top-rated
companies, 12 of them feature at least one woman on their board. In total, women
hold 12% of the positions on these 15 boards. This statistic is unchanged from
2006.
More than half of public companies in Georgia have no women on their boards.
The percentage of women-held board seats has increased to 7.4%, the highest in
the history of the study, due in part to the number of board seats being the
smallest since the first study in 1993. Women of color hold only one percent of
all board seats throughout Georgia; a statistic that has not changed since BDN
began reporting it in 2003.
Results and comments on the study will be presented at BDN’s annual award
reception and gala event, on November 1, at 103 West in Buckhead. Four women
executive business leaders will be honored in the pre-dinner reception, Becky
Blalock, Becky Blalock, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer,
Southern Company; Kathy Harris, Partner, Noro-Moseley Partners; Tasia Katapodis,
Regional President, BB&T; and Amy Whitley, Vice President, Organizational
Development, UPS. The recipient of the 5th annual Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans
Award to an outstanding woman director will be announced at the dinner. Cathy
Cox, President, Young Harris College will deliver the keynote address.
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans award is sponsored by KPMG. The Board of
Directors Network, Inc. (BDN) is a non-profit research and advisory organization
that works to increase the number of women in corporate leadership and on
corporate boards. In addition to preparing its annual census of companies’ board
profiles, BDN confidentially collaborates with corporations and other key
influencers of the director selection process to identify women candidates for
board of directors’ positions. For information, call BDN at 770/489-6689 or
visit the BDN web site,
http://www.boarddirectorsnetwork.org/2007_study.asp.
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