Board Diversity & Tech: Example and Benefits

Given the importance of board diversity and the increased social and corporate impact it has, it may not come as a surprise to see the increased inclusion of ethnically and gender diverse directors in big companies. It has been something that many corporations had taken pride of. However, examining how board diversity affected the tech sector is something that requires probing.

When talking about tech companies, some of the very first names that comes to mind are, Intel, IBM, Apple and Microsoft. However, when looking at board diversity in general, these companies would not necessarily come to mind.

Interestingly, upon examining the list of Fortune 500 companies, it is easy to find a significant number of tech companies represented in the list. However, how many of these can top the list in terms of board diversity is a different story.

It may come as a surprise to learn that Microsoft had actually topped the list of Fortune 500 companies in terms of board diversity with over 39% of board members coming from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds (Fortune Online). Of the total number of board members in Microsoft, 5 are female, 2 are Asian and 1 is black (GeekWire).

Perhaps such numbers are explained through the fact that board diversity had shown to increase creativity of the company, increases profits and help in designing better products or services (Forbes Online).