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The British Chamber , together with PA Consulting Group and Copenhagen Business School, organised a seminar this month entitled “Women on Boards”. Professor Steen Thomsen , CBS set the scene by highlighting the key issues backed up with facts and figures and then our key note speakers: Lady Barbara Judge (Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority) and Directors Halla Tómasdóttir and Kristín Pétursdóttir (Audur Capital) shared their experiences, gave advice and were tremendously inspiring about how to get 100% of the world's brains onto Boards.
Photo by Gareth Garvey
Lady Barbara Judge, who has been a role model for professional women for decades, emphasised the need to nurture a business environment that will encourage talented women to seek senior positions of responsibility in the business community. She also hoped that more women in positions of responsibility would use their influence to encourage other women with potential to develop and gain the experience they need. In her own career as a young lawyer with top grades from Harvard, she had to fight her way through a variety of male prejudices. Her catalogue of amusing but somewhat shocking stories was endless. She advised her fellow women not to get offended if offered a job as the "token woman" on a Board but to grab the opportunity to learn and show what they can contribute. She added that charities and local committees are also a good place to start and break that "no experience so can not get the experience" loop. Above all it was important to be professional.
The two notorious lady directors from Audur Capital in Iceland, who have been on the front covers of some of the most prestigious magazines throughout the world, spoke of the need for women to be more than just a single unheard voice in board rooms. However, neither of them believes that quota regulation is the right solution and could add that in Iceland the Chamber of Commerce has been given the responsibility to increase the number of women on professional boards over the next 3-4 years to a level of real influence.
All three women were agreed that the important thing moving forward is to "raise awareness" through discussing the issues at events like this one. A panel discussion followed where Bolette Christensen (DI), Vanessa Graarup (Best Women), and Ivar Samren (Professional Board Member) joined our speakers to address questions from the well-filled CBS auditorium. Troels Gregersen (PA Consulting) steered the debate which covered the problems in Denmark and what action is being taken, including views for and against affirmative action. |
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