Dutch companies recruiting more female board members: Report

Shareholders of Dutch listed companies are increasingly committed to recruiting more female board members. Half of the board members appointed since October 2018, are women, according to a study into this year's shareholders' meetings by Eumedion, NU.nl reports.

The interest group found that more and more shareholders voted against the appointment of a new male board member if there were only men on the board. The number of companies who have no women as supervisory directors or board members decreased from 17 in 2018 to 11 this year. And the number of female board members is slowly increasing. Eumedion attributes the slow increase mainly to the fact that many of these positions have long terms, which means that the staff turnover is limited.

Eumedion also found that shareholders are increasingly voting against board proposals. This particularly involves poorly substantiated proposals for exorbitant rewards, or proposals that lead to board members having carte blance to issue more shares. 14 proposals were voted down or withdrawn this year, compared to five in 2018 and eight in 2017.