Big Names vs. Real Governance, Board Accountability, and Latino Board Diversity

Reuters published an article last week regarding a recent study done by the Latino Corporate Directors Association. In it, the study pointed to Latinos occupying just “2.5% of board seats in the state overall.” In comparison, Latinos and Hispanics make up 39.4% of California’s population and are its largest ethnic group. More recently, the study found that of the 1,443 new directors added to public company boards, only 3.5% of them were Latino or Hispanic, only a very modest improvement on the overall averages.  

Kathy Munoz, a vice-president at the Latino Corporate Directors Association, says “We’ve been overlooked. We’re not getting the visibility that other communities are getting.”

Indeed, the California data is likely to be representative of the broader U.S. If that’s true, clearly, there is much work to be done for Latino representation on boards, as is the case for many other minority groups.  

A separate article in Harvard Business Review notes that much of the challenge (or as Ted Lasso might say, “the opportunity”) lies in boards not focusing on the right strategies regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The article’s author, Simran Jeet Singh, noted three reasons why boards have fallen short of their diversity initiatives:

1. Embedding DEI requires the board to identify meaningful reasons to seek diverse talent.
2. Broadening professional circles requires tapping into different networks outside the reach of current board members.
3. Going beyond tokenism and symbolism requires updating traditional thinking, adapting ways of being, and seeing value differently.

We will again call your attention to a recent webinar that unpacks how to move from “Optics to Meaningful” to pursue diverse board composition. It’s a great place to start.