TOWARDS DYNAMIC GOVERNANCE 2014
European Corporate Governance Report COMPOSITION WHO IS ON THE BOARD?
Our benchmarks focus on the demographics of boards across Europe: age, experience, tenure and both gender and nationality diversity.
Age of directors
The average age of European board directors is 58.2, little changed from previous reports.
Spain and Italy tend to have a large proportion of directors (around 1 in 6) aged over 70. Almost half of Polish directors are aged 50 or under.
Senior board roles tend to be held by older directors with the average for Chairman (63.5), Senior Independent Director (62.2) and Deputy Chairs (61.5).
Non-executive directors, executive directors and CEOs tend to be in their mid-50s: 56.7, 52.9 and 54.2 respectively.
CEO experience
Around one third of directors have previous CEO experience, down from 42% in 2011.
In France, Finland and Switzerland the fi gure is around 50%, while in Poland and Portugal the level is around 20%.
Board members aged 60 or over who have had previous CEO employment experience are more likely to become non-executive directors, with only around 1 in 5 (18%) becoming Chairmen.
Director commitments Just 11% of directors hold 3 or more NED roles.
In Switzerland 28% of directors hold 3 or more NED roles, while in Spain and Poland the proportion drops to 1%.
Board tenure
Our benchmark suggests that board directors are serving longer, 6.1 years on average compared to 5.7 years in 2011.
Belgium tops the table with 7.8 years, while Norway and Poland see directors serving on average for 4.6 years.
Directors in Italy, UK and Netherlands serve on boards a third longer than they did in 2009.
Diversity of thought
Our data suggests that the proportion of women on boards has risen from 10% in 2009 to 17% in 2013.
The number of boards with no female representation has fallen sharply from 33% to 12% across the same period.
Overall, boards are becoming more international in their mix, with non-national directors now making up 30% of the director pool across Europe.
North American directors remain the largest proportion of this non-national group, but there are some notable increases in directors from Belgium and the Netherlands, Central and Eastern Europe where the proportion has increased from 4% in 2011 to 8% in 2013.
Heidrick & Struggles 23
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