Promoting gender diversity on corporate boards of directors

THE BOARDWOMEN PARTNERS PROGRAMME

The goal of the BoardWomen Partners program, launched in June 2007 by Véronique Préaux-Cobti and Marie-Claude Peyrache, in partnership with AFEP, was to significantly increase the percentage of women serving on corporate boards of directors.

The BWP programme celebrated its 10th anniversary on the 29th of November, 2017.

In 2019, the Afep, under the direction of his chairman Mr. Burelle, has renewed the cross-mentoring program between company members to pursue its commitment to gender diversity in boardrooms.

We would like to pay tribute to Mr. Collomb woh died on May 23th, 2019. Mr. Collomb, as Chairman of Afep in the 2000’s, sponsored the launch of the BWP program and supported, during 10 years, the actions in favour of building better gender balance in the boardroom. We are extremely grateful for his unfailing and constructive support for BoardWomen Partners.

The BWP programme is based on the commitment of Chairmen and CEOs and/or the Chairmen of Boards of Directors of large companies in France (CAC40, SBF120 and equivalent), who are convinced that a better gender balance will help improve the administration and performance of their businesses.

This programmes objectives are:

• Develop a pool of women who are qualified to serve on a corporation’s board of directors
• Provide these women with greater visibility, by putting them in direct contact with CEOs or Chairmen of corporate boards
• Prepare women for this role over a three-year period.

The programme’s operating principles:

The program is based on the principle of cross-mentoring, pairing corporate CEOs with senior women executives.

Each Chairman:

• Proposes one or more women from his company to service as “mentees”. They will be introduced to the Chairman of another company participating in the BWP program.
• Agrees to meet with a “high-potential” woman executive from another company. These meetings are coordinated by the Diafora/BWP team to ensure confidentiality and non-competition.

With one basic principle:

• Commitment: the role of Mentor may not be delegated to someone else

Mentors and their mentees meet regularly two-to-three times per year.

The ‘matching’ (or mentor/mentee partnership) is created and managed by the Diafora-BWP team in collaboration with the steering committee. All Chairmen reunited once a year and the mentees two or three times a year.

Within 10 years, BordWomen Partners has contributed to:

– more than 130 people, 60 mentors and 74 mentees

– 120 pairing of mentors/mentees

– 58 women nominated on 105 Boards of Directors

A NON-PROFIT PROGRAMME

The BoardWomen Partners programme is a non-profit mentoring programme launched and managed by Marie-Claude Peyrache and Véronique Préaux-Cobti, both involved in the professional promotion of women for more than ten years, and is supported by l’AFEP.

BWP is a non-profit initiative managed within Diafora, a consulting firm that specializes in the issue of diversity in corporate leadership. It is overseen by a steering committee.

KEY FIGURES

From 2007 to 2018, BoardWomen Partners included :

48	60	74	58
Participating companies	CEO Mentors	Mentees	Mentees have joined a corporate board

COMPANIES PARTICIPATING OR HAVING PARTICIPATED TO THE BWP PROGRAM  :

DIAFORA’S BAROMETER – BOARDWOMEN PARTNERS

2013 – 2014