LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) – Commodity trader and miner Glencore Plc, the last London-listed blue-chip company with an all-male board, has appointed Patrice Merrin as its first female board director.
The group had come under fire from some shareholders over its apparent failure to follow recommendations in a 2011 British government review that called for more women on company boards.
Canadian mining expert Merrin, appointed a non-executive director with immediate effect, had worked at Canadian miner Sherritt for a decade before becoming chief executive of Canada’s largest thermal coal producer Luscar.
She is also a director of precious metals mining company Stillwater and has been proposed as director of MFC Industrial and Cliff Natural Resources. “This is a historic day for the FTSE and for the reforms I’ve been pushing for to ensure that there is more diversity in the talent running our biggest companies,” said UK Business Secretary Vince Cable.
“This last appointment has been long in the making but I congratulate Glencore Xstrata … The case for change is clear – businesses with diversity at their top are more successful. British businesses have embraced this move for change and done so in a voluntary way, without recourse for legal targets.”
The UK government’s Davies Review recommended that all firms in the FTSE 100 index of leading shares should aim for at least a quarter of board roles to be held by women by 2015.
Commodities was this year found to be the listed company sector with the lowest percentage of female board members, at only 13.6 percent against an average 24.7 percent, according to researchers Nordic Investor Services.
Those findings echoed a 2013 report from accountants PwC which said it had found mining lagged all other sectors, including oil and gas, in terms of gender diversity, with only 5 percent of board seats held by women in the top 500 mining companies globally.
The same study noted that profit margins were higher for mining companies with women on the board.
Glencore’s appointment came after Chairman Tony Hayward said at the annual general meeting in May the company would name a female director by the end of the year.
Hayward did not openly remark on the fact that the appointment of Merrin puts an end to Glencore’s female-free board era, focusing instead on her skills.
“Patrice’s in-depth experience of operating across the resources sector will help strengthen the board’s ability to work with the opportunities and challenges presented by the global extractive industry,” Hayward said.
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