Group hails European Commission Vice President Reding’s call to shatter Glass Ceiling in Europe’s Board Rooms and improve corporate governance for 21st Century Europe   07 March 2012:  The European Business Schools/Women on Board initiative has published a first list of more than 3500 board-ready women to bring Europe into the 21st Century and support European Commission Vice President Reding’s initiative to shatter the glass ceiling for women in Europe’s publicly listed corporation’s board rooms. The list includes individual profiles of 150 senior executive women who are publicly supporting Commissioner Reding’s initiative as well as European Business Schools who have culled their alumnae, faculty, and Board members to identify more than 3500 “board ready” women. The group has also published five sets of criteria for board membership.  These criteria were used as guidelines for the selection of the individual women and by the business schools for their selection of board ready women (see below). The group includes Business Schools such as IESE (ES), EDHEC (F), INSEAD (F), Cambridge Judge Business School (UK), IMD (CH) , RSM (NL), Boston University Leadership Institute(BE),  ESMT (D) and the business school association EFMD (European Foundation of Management Development) as well as professional organizations such as the GTWN (Global Telecom Women’s Network), WiTT (Women in Telecoms and Technology), WoB  (Women on Boards), the FT Non-Executive Director’s Club, EPWN (European Professsional Women’s Network), IFA (Institut Francais des Administrateurs),  TIAW (The International Alliance for Women). Lady Barbara Judge, Bridget Cosgrave, Sherry Coutu, Claire Enders, Janice Hughes, [...]

INTRODUCTION European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding furthered her initiative to obtain more gender balance in European boardrooms by joining together with Europe’s leading business schools and the female board members within their eco-systems to support their launch of a “Call to Action” to shatter the glass ceilings impeding senior women executives from acceding to corporate boardroom seats throughout Europe. BUSINESS SCHOOLS HOLD ONE OF THE KEYS Business schools hold one of the keys to obtaining more women in the corporate boardrooms of Europe over time and this because of three reasons: ■As a question of ethics and performance, business schools should promote and advocate the diversity of leadership of which female leadership makes an integral part ■Business schools form one of the key sources of the development of new future talent. They develop our future (male and female) leaders ■Business schools have a unique access to both our female leadership and to the corporate and academic world and can act as an ‘intermediary’ and catalyst Business schools have an important role to actively promote female leadership and to build awareness in the corporate world. They are one of the starting points of female executive talent development. CALL TO ACTION The following “Call to Action” identifies specific actions for business schools to take and/or which are already being taken to promote current senior female leadership in Europe in the corporate world and at the same time ensure that the pipeline of female talent is filled. The initiatives below are a [...]