More women chairing our listed companies, but progress is slow

WHEN Margaret Jackson became chairman of Qantas in 2000, she was the first woman to chair a top ASX 50 listed company.

WHEN Margaret Jackson became chairman of Qantas in 2000, she was the first woman to chair a top ASX 50 listed company.

But the past few years have seen a distinct change in that picture. The push to increase the number of women on boards is now translating into a greater number of women being appointed to chair major ASX companies.

Catherine Livingstone has been chair of Telstra, one of Australia’s largest companies, since 2009, working with CEO David Thodey on a major turnaround of the telecoms giant, more than doubling its market capitalisation in the past few years.

Elizabeth Bryan took over as chair of Caltex in 2007, again overseeing a major change of that company, working with chief executive Julian Segal.

Perth-based company director Diane Smith-Gander took over as the chair of Transfield Services in October 2013.

Paula Dwyer is one of the few women who chair two major ASX-listed companies, overseeing both Healthscope and Tabcorp.

Elizabeth Alexander has been chair of Medibank Private, Australia’s largest private health insurer, since March 2013. She oversaw its successful listing on the stock exchange last year. With a market capitalisation of $7 billion, it already ranks in the top 50 listed companies.

Jackson has cut back a lot of her corporate roles but is now chair of the catering, cleaning and services company Spotless. An experienced company director, she took over as the chair of Spotless in March last year ahead of its listing in May.

Other leading women chairs include Helen Nugent, who oversees credit reference company Veda, which listed on the stock exchange in December 2013.

She works with Veda chief executive Nerida Caesar, in a rare combination of a female chair and CEO of a listed company.

In Perth, company director Erica Smyth chairs ASX-listed uranium company Toro Energy, working with CEO Vanessa Guthrie. Both women have several decades experience in the mining industry.

Other women chairs of ASX-listed companies include Kate Spargo at UGL and Vickki McFadden at Skilled.

Australia’s largest industry superannuation fund, the $80bn Australian Super, is chaired by ­Reserve Bank board member Heather Ridout.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors’ chief executive, John Brogden, says that the AICD’s push for more women company directors has helped with the increasing opportunities for women to chair ASX-listed companies.

But he points out that the number of women chairs outweighs the number of women chief executives of major ASX-listed companies, particularly with this month’s departure of Westpac CEO Gail Kelly.

Smith-Gander, who recently took over as president of Chief Executive Women, in addition to being a director of conglomerate Wesfarmers, points out that the number of women chairs of top 200 ASX company boards has doubled in the past four years.

“I chair one and I have nine female counterparts,” she told The Australian yesterday.

“As boards become more rigorous in director selection, it is inevitable that the percentage of female company directors will rise from the current level of less than 20 per cent,” she says. “More female ­directors builds the pipeline for more female chairman.”

But she argues that the trend is coming off a very low base.

“While the representation of women as chairman may seem to be accelerating, it is an artefact of an appalling low base. As recently as 2010 only five top ASX-listed companies had female chairmen.

“Yep, doubling in four years has got us to a whopping 5 per cent representation. That’s a bit more than one new female chairman per year.”

At this rate, she predicts the top 200 listed companies will have 50 per cent women chairs by 2055.

“If I live to see that, it will be almost my 100th birthday,” she says.