Atlanta, Ga. – The 16th annual Board of Directors Network study shows little to no progress in increasing the number of women board members. Of Georgia’s 161 public companies, 48% have one or more woman on their board of directors, down from 49% in last year's study. Women hold 99 of the 1,323 board seats in Georgia down from 106 in last year’s study. “BDN encourages all stakeholders to get involved and reverse the lack of progress in the representation of women on Georgia’s public company boards. The business case for more women on boards has been articulated by many. We just need to make it happen”, said Roxanne Douglas, President of BDN.

Fortune 500 ranks include 12 Georgia companies. Of these 12 top-rated companies, 11 of them feature at least one woman on their board. In total, women hold 13% of the positions on these 12 boards.

More than half of public companies in Georgia have no women on their boards. The percentage of women-held board seats has increased to 7.5%, the highest in the history of the study, due to the number of total 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 October 16th, at 103 West in Buckhead. Five women executive business leaders will be honored in the pre-dinner reception, Barbara Blackford, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Superior Essex Inc.; Peggy McCormick, President, Atlanta Development Authority; Sarah O'Brien, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Operations, Dental System Group, Carestream Health; Leslie Pearce, Vice President, Software Sales ibm.com, and Leslie Sibert, Vice President Transmission, Georgia Power. The recipient of the 6th annual Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award to an outstanding woman director will be announced at the dinner and Michael L. Eskew, Former Chairman & CEO, UPS 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/2008_study.asp.

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