TOWARDS DYNAMIC GOVERNANCE 2014
European Corporate Governance Report
With one or two exceptions, the shape and structure of boards in Europe has remained more or less unaltered over the past decade.
Size of board
The European average is 12.1 directors, unchanged from our 2011 benchmark and only marginally up from 11.8 directors in 2009.
There remain wide variations across the region: Finland has the lowest average at 7.5, while Germany, with the inclusion of worker representatives, has the highest at 17.
Across the 15 countries the average has remained more or less constant with the exception of Portugal and Belgium where the size of boards has declined (by around one member) to 14.1 and 12.5 respectively.
Representation
Non-executives continue to make up the majority of board representatives at 80%, although this is slightly down from 85% in 2011.
Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and France have more than 90% non-executive representation, while Portugal and Poland have around 60%.
On average 1 in 5 boards have chosen to combine the roles of CEO and Chairman.
STRUCTURE THE SHAPE OF THE BOARD Committees
The European average is up slightly at 3.4 committees, up from 3.0 in 2009.
The UK shows a marked increase from 3.9 to 4.4 board committees.
Audit, Remuneration and Nomination remain the primary committees but, increasingly, boards are adding Strategy (in France 65% of boards have a Strategy committee), Governance and Risk to their list of committees.
18 Towards Dynamic Governance 2014 – European Corporate Governance Report
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48