Ready-for-Board Women Dossier 2011 opens to Academic and Management profiles
by Silvia Siliprandi
93 new names add up to the Ready-for-Board Women list drafted in 2009, reaching a total of 165 women selected by PWA Milan and the Advisory Board as full potential new candidates for Boards close to their renewal.
PWA Milan’s President, Monica Pesce, greeted the crowded audience that took part to presentation of the second edition of the RFBW list in Assolombarda, asking the RFBW in the room to stand up and collect the excitement and loud applauses of the guests. A touching and powerful gesture that followed the presentations of the Advisory Board Members.
Maurizia Iachino, partner of Key2people and Governance Practice Leader, introduced the audience to the criteria used for the selection: experience, professional roles with high management responsibility, skills, seniority, reputation, internationality, commitment at Associative and Federation level (see her presentation here).
Marianna Carbonari, Senior Associate Spencer Stuart Italia, explained the value of the project, based on a pragmatic approach and objective criteria, therefore granting an excellent and reliable talent pool that can finally and undeniably prove Italian women have what it takes to enter Board rooms (see her presentation here).
Simona Cuomo, Coordinator of the Diversity Management Observatory at SDA Bocconi, helped the guests picturing the typical profile of a “Board member” in order to underline the challenges that a woman faces to match with a traditional and standard model. Focusing on the added value of diversity, Cuomo suggested the best answer might be widening the skills and career profile a professional should hold to access a Board (see her presentation here).
Livia Amidani Aliberti, founder of Aliberti Governance Advisors and expert of corporate governance, highlighted the opportunities and the risks implied in the legislation likely to be approved and effective very soon. Hoping that even small boards will make the best efforts to include women regardless the unfavourable math (round down of the quota calculation), the new legislative environment is however only a starting point, it is the market instead, and its competitive rules, that should create the best conditions for women to excel (see her presentation here).
Women’s presence shouldn’t only be measured in terms of numbers, but also in terms of key positions within professional networks. Romina Guglielmetti, lawyer and expert of corporate governance insisted on the importance of looking for the best talents, regardless the gender, as a way for companies to ensure growth and sustainability. The RFBW list demonstrate that there’s an entire talent pool of professional ready and willing to serve economy (read her speech here).
The second part of our summary dedicated to the RFBW event will focus on what has been discussed by our panel.
