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What Board Leaders Say

The advantages of diversity and inclusion are manifold in that boards enjoy more creativity, better innovation, deeper exploration of issues, and fresh inspiration drawn from shared and broader experiences, leading to more effective problem solving. This is observed not only in companies, but also in non-profit groups and public sector.

Loh Boon Chye

Board diversity, a recognised hallmark of progressive boards even before Covid-19, is more critical now than before. Post-pandemic recovery offers opportunities for innovation and business repositioning. Having directors with a wider mix of gender, age, skills, experiences, and backgrounds allows boards the broad-based choices as they assess what is best for the future. Investors and customers also now expect companies to go beyond the financial bottom-line and incorporate ESG into company strategies and policies. Gender diversity is one of many factors considered in ESG discussions. Women directors are an obvious choice when considering board diversity and we have already started to see some institutional investors vote against boards without sufficient diversity.

Mr Loh Boon Chye

Co-Chair, Council for Board Diversity
Chief Executive Officer, SGX Group

While some boards may be hesitant of appointing candidates without board experience, changes in consumer behaviours and business models in a post-pandemic world requires board members with the “current” relevant know-how. Their expertise could bring added value to boards’ deliberations. We hope that organisations – including companies and statutory boards – will seek out women talents and give them equal opportunity to take the first step onto a board. When all organisations keep an open mind and appoint such qualified women onto the boards, it expands the pool of candidates for the entire country.

Mrs Mildred Tan

Co-Chair, Council for Board Diversity
Chairman, Tote Board Singapore and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) Board of Trustees; and other directorships

Mildred Tan

A board should be made up of diverse individuals with relevant knowledge, industry experience, independence and a variety of perspectives to generate effective challenges and discussions. This will enable a board tap to into its diversity of talent to offer strategic insights and perspectives gleaned from different lenses so that all considerations are taken for the desired outcome. It will guard against ‘group think’ and serve as an inspiration to its leadership team to adopt a growth mindset to seize opportunities for development and innovation. This is especially critical in the current era of constant disruption where consumer trends are fast evolving and businesses are challenged on all frontiers in the new normal.

Ms Elaine Heng

Head of Group Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability, OCBC

Elaine Heng

A board should be made up of diverse individuals with relevant knowledge, industry experience, independence and a variety of perspectives to generate effective challenges and discussions. This will enable a board tap to into its diversity of talent to offer strategic insights and perspectives gleaned from different lenses so that all considerations are taken for the desired outcome. It will guard against ‘group think’ and serve as an inspiration to its leadership team to adopt a growth mindset to seize opportunities for development and innovation. This is especially critical in the current era of constant disruption where consumer trends are fast evolving and businesses are challenged on all frontiers in the new normal.  


MS ELAINE HENG
Head of Group Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability, OCBC

Key decision-makers must recognise the value of diversity and commit to taking action. As leaders, we must also ensure that diversity is not just a box-ticking exercise, but a genuine effort to create a culture of inclusion that values and empowers everyone. This can be achieved by creating awareness through education and training programs, setting measurable goals for diversity, and ensuring that the selection process for board members is inclusive and merit-based.


MR JONATHAN EU
CEO and Board Director, Singapore Land Group Limited

A diversity of candidates can only come from a diversity of sources. (The board) would need to consciously take concrete steps to counteract the natural tendency to search within their usual networks… (SGX’s) rules on diversity policy disclosures are not a recipe for, nor a guarantee of success. Success requires companies to foster a corporate culture of diversity through sustained commitment.


MR TAN BOON GIN
CEO, Singapore Exchange Regulation
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Jonathan Eu

Mr JONATHAN EU

tan boon gin

Mr Tan Boon Gin

euleen goh no pin

Ms Euleen Goh

Phillip Ng

Mr Philip Ng

peter seah

Mr Peter Seah

Serge Pun 1

Mr Serge Pun

su yen

Ms Wong Su-Yen

Dr Gerard Ee

Dr Gerard Ee

chaly mah 2

Mr Chaly Mah

Ong Chong Tee

Mr Ong Chong Tee

peter t grauer

Mr Peter T. Grauer

deborah ho

Ms Deborah Ho

susan soh

Ms Susan Soh

diaan yi lin 1

Ms Diaan-Yi Lin

euleen goh no pin

Ms Euleen Goh

Phillip Ng

Mr Philip Ng

peter seah

Mr Peter Seah

Serge Pun 1

Mr Serge Pun

su yen

Ms Wong Su-Yen

Dr Gerard Ee

Dr Gerard Ee

chaly mah 2

Mr Chaly Mah

Ong Chong Tee

Mr Ong Chong Tee

peter t grauer

Mr Peter T. Grauer

deborah ho

Ms Deborah Ho

susan soh

Ms Susan Soh

diaan yi lin 1

Ms Diaan-Yi Lin

Views on board diversity and resilience

From Board Chairmen

DAC Chairman Conversation highres

Sept 19, 2018

Key takeaways from the Panel Discussion with Peter Seah (Chairman, DBS Group and Singapore Airlines) and S.S. Teo (Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Pacific International Lines):

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Views on Board Diversity

From perspective of companies, investors and advisers

DAC Seminar highres

Jun 29, 2018

Summary of the Panel Discussion with Piyush Gupta (CEO, DBS Group), Min Lan Tan (Group MD and APAC Head of Chief Investment Office, UBS Global Wealth Management) and Diaan-Yi Lin (Senior Partner and Asia Co-Lead for Social, Healthcare & Public Entities, McKinsey & Company):

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Shared Wisdom

From Chairmen and Investors

shared wisdom collage 2

Oct 5, 2016

Chairmen of leading Singapore companies with diverse boards are united in their view that gender‑diverse boards are simply better governed.

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Mr Tan Boon Gin

CEO, Singapore Exchange Regulation

“A diversity of candidates can only come from a diversity of sources. (The board) would need to consciously take concrete steps to counteract the natural tendency to search within their usual networks… (SGX’s) rules on diversity policy disclosures are not a recipe for, nor a guarantee of success. Success requires companies to foster a corporate culture of diversity through sustained commitment.”

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Ms Euleen Goh

Chair, SATS Ltd and Singapore Institute of Management; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc; and other directorships

“Too many times the thinking is: ‘We know what’s out there, we know who’s out there. We’ll just appoint the people we know’ rather than ‘let’s take a meaningful look at the wider pool of people and try to bring much more diversity to the board’.”

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Mr Philip Ng

Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Far East Organization

“Values are the rock of foundation for an enduring enterprise. It is important that we seek leaders with the right values, and who are able to operate in the dimensions of vision, reality, ethics, and courage, regardless of gender. I recommend fellow board chairmen and business owners to consider the best talent possibilities, so as to bring on board stewards who will grow the enterprise assets entrusted to their care. The diversity of views, skills and experience will enrich discussions and add value to our companies and customers.”

Mr Peter Seah

Chair, DBS Bank and Singapore Airlines Limited

“You will see richer dialogue and discussion with women on boards. Because of our good experience, we now always insist that we have women on our Board.”

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Mr Serge Pun

Chair, Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd

“I’m hoping to find more people who have a view of their own instead of all being ‘yes men’ who will just agree with me. That would defeat the whole purpose of having a board. I might as well make all the decisions myself.”

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Ms Wong Su-Yen

Chair, Singapore Institute of Directors
Chair, Nera Telecommunications Ltd

“I recommend people who are interested in serving on boards to start with a non-profit board for a cause they care about, and investing time in professional development. This will provide a foundational understanding of governance and from there, slowly but surely start building a network. Every chairman knows that they didn’t start out being on a board with board experience. Everyone had to start somewhere.”

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Dr Gerard Ee

Chairman, Charity Council, and Agency for Integrated Care; and other organisations

“The Board is like the team which pilots a ship. Every member of the team has a vital role to play. The team is required to know the destination and what the ship might encounter along the journey. The instruments on board give timely warnings of impending challenges to the ship. Team members are then expected to give appropriate guidance and instructions to crew members to deal with the arising situations. From time to time the ship is upgraded and team members have to be trained and be familiarized with the operational requirements. Sometimes new team members who are familiar with the newly installed equipment have to be recruited. Sometimes team members are transferred to other ships to pass on their skills.”

Read more about the Board Appointment Guide for Charities.
Read more about Board Diversity in Singapore Charities.

Mr Chaly Mah

Chair, Netlink NBN Management Pte Ltd
Chair, Singapore Accountancy Commission and Singapore Tourism Board

“I think it’s important for you to make sure that your board is diverse enough to support your business. To me that must be the number 1 consideration. And what I find with women on the board is actually they do come up with very different perspective from the men. …One thing that boards could think about is actually to make sure that when you are trying to fill a board position, you make sure that the candidate pool has got enough women on the candidate pool. Then I think you’ve got a better shot of considering it. So if you’re looking for an engineer, make sure that you have ideally 50:50 male and female candidates. Or at least enough numbers for you to pick from. I think those are good practices to embrace.”

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Mr Ong Chong Tee

Chairman, Board of Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority

“To weather crises like Covid-19, boards can look at improving the organisation’s operational resilience, business resilience, and human capital resilience.”

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Mr Peter T. Grauer

Chair, Bloomberg LP

“Lack of (board) diversity can no longer be gotten away with by citing a lack of ‘supply’. We must recognize that it is clearly a matter of demand – and that precedent-setting demand must come from the very top of companies.”

Read more about the Dialogue with Mr Grauer
Read more about the keynote by Mr Grauer

Ms Deborah Ho

Country Head of Singapore and Head of Southeast Asia, BlackRock

“We believe boards should aspire to meaningful diversity of membership – the diversity of perspective and thought in the board room, in the management team and throughout the company increases the likelihood of more robust discussions, as well as more innovative and resilient decisions. This leads to better long-term financial outcomes for companies, enabling them to develop businesses that more closely reflect and resonate with the customers and communities they serve.”

 

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Ms Susan Soh

Head of Asia-Pacific, Schroders; Chair, Investment Management Association of Singapore

“In an ever-evolving world, a diverse blend of capabilities with client-centricity at the core is required. Embracing both veteran and new talent will be key to advancing an organisation.”

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Ms Diaan-Yi Lin

Senior Partner and Asia Co-Lead for Social, Healthcare and Public Entities, McKinsey & Company

“Women’s representation in leadership and leadership roles, especially on corporate boards, matters a great deal. Research shows that the presence of three or more women on boards is positively correlated with stronger organizational health; better decision making, corporate governance, and financial performance; greater diversity of thought; a closer match between companies and customers; and a broader base of leadership and talent. Increasing the number and percentage of women on corporate boards is not only equitable; it is also an effective approach to strengthen companies and national economies, by enabling them to tap into the best available people across entire talent pools.”

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