Our Board Diversity Journey
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From under representation of women to broader boardroom diversity
To address the lack of women on corporate boards or risk undermining Singapore’s reputation as a business hub, the Council for Board Diversity (previously Diversity Action Committee) was formed to drive momentum towards gender-balanced boards. Now, the embrace of skilled women directors must serve as a lead-in to broader diversity considerations – especially in these uncertain times.
Few things fan Singapore’s determination quite like the prospect of performing exceptionally well, or unexpectedly poorly, in an assessment.
This was arguably the case when an early study by the Diversity Task Force regarding Women on Boards (DTF), convened by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), brought focus to the considerable underrepresentation of women on Singapore’s corporate boards.
The DTF’s comb of 2013 data showed only 8.1 per cent of all directorships at SGX-listed companies were held by women, even as women held one in five senior management roles and comprised half of all university enrolments. Among the top 100 firms by market capitalisation, the proportion of women directors dipped to 7.5 per cent.
In a tabulation of international data, Singapore, an Asian financial centre accustomed to sitting among the top in international rankings, came in near bottom on board gender diversity – both a hallmark of quality governance and the most visible and significant aspect of diversity.
“Numbers have never been important for me. They still aren’t. But they do serve as an indicator of where we are at. More important to me is the acceptance and embracement of board diversity. If people are respectful of the diverse views that come out of diversity, I think that augers well for Singapore,” Mildred Tan, Chair of the former DTF, which recommended a multi-stakeholder approach to increasing women’s board participation, observes emphatically.
Merit-Based Diversity Journey
Recognising urgency in the need to address women’s underrepresentation on corporate boards, or risk undermining Singapore’s reputation as a leading business hub, a Diversity Action Committee (DAC) was assembled in late 2014.
A private-public sector collaboration, the DAC was overseen by MSF with then SGX Group CEO Magnus Böcker serving as its Chair. Made up of business leaders and subject matter experts, the Committee recognised that poor board gender diversity performance was not simply for a lack of women talent – a more pressing issue was the need to activate demand.
To promote and shift mindsets towards appointing more qualified women to the boards of SGX issuers, the Committee put forth diversity’s business case: A board’s ability to harness a range of skills, experiences and viewpoints was critical to an organisation’s long-term success, especially in a complex operating environment.
Moreover, being deliberate in widening board candidate searches beyond traditional networks to new and different talent pools and to a broader slate – women made up 50 per cent of Singapore’s brightest minds – aligned with the merit-based system Singapore held dear.
“What we got right from the beginning was to put in effort to make women more aware that their board appointments were due to their abilities, and not because of their gender,” believes SS Teo, an early DAC member and then Chairman of the Singapore Business Federation, who drew on his connections to engage owners and board directors.
“Some owner-operators ran businesses that had been successful all this while without any women on their boards and did not see any need for change. Others observed that in some countries with a gender quota, you’d see wives and sisters appointed to boards, so there was a perception that board gender diversity was window dressing. It took one to two years to shift attitudes and clear misunderstandings,” remembers Teo.
Fellow DAC member Junie Foo, Immediate Past President of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) was all too familiar with the early challenges having co-founded and chaired its BoardAgender initiative. “Both men and women were resistant to our calls to advance more women into boardrooms. It was after two or more years of advocacy and one-on-one engagements before the more senior women were convinced,” she recalls.
Targets as Compass and Motivator
DAC, under new Chair Loh Boon Chye, who succeeded Magnus Böcker in 2016, debated what would be an appropriate strategy for growing board gender diversity with pace. Increasing the number of women directors was, as made plain in the Committee’s Terms of Reference, “for the sustainable competitiveness of companies and the economy as a whole”.
In 2017, an escalating set of voluntary targets was announced to rally Singapore’s listed companies into raising women’s share of board seats: 20% by 2020, 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. In tandem, DAC pursued a six-step plan to encourage progress, including recommendations to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on reviewing the Code of Corporate Governance to require the disclosure of board diversity policies, and a more active engagement of multi-stakeholders on harnessing diversity’s benefits.
As Loh explained through the media: “If companies recognise that this is really about business benefits with a view to a sustainable business model, the momentum for change will be greater than a mandatory quota, which at times could speak of tokenism. People will just be trying to make the numbers. But if you don’t really believe in the benefits, how sustainable that will be will come into question.”
Strengthened Leadership for Singapore
With companies warming to board gender diversity, internal discussions at MSF and DAC turned quite naturally to Singapore at large.
Diversity, they observed, was just as crucial to non-profit boards as it was to for-profit broads. A wider public-private-people focus would not only strengthen leadership across society but also enhance opportunities and increase entry points for those in the director pipeline – adding to a richer board talent pool for Singapore.
In early 2019, DAC was reconstituted into the Council for Board Diversity (CBD) to build conviction for the value of board diversity within the people and public sectors too. The move signalled Singapore’s long-term commitment to board diversity efforts.
Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX Group, and Mildred Tan, then Chairman of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, returned to spearhead efforts as Co-chairs. Longtime DAC adviser Halimah Yacob, who had stepped up to serve as President of Singapore in 2017, lent her voice and distinction as CBD’s Founding Patron.
“The lack of women on boards was not just a stock exchange problem. It was a question about how did we end up with this issue? And was this an issue faced by the public service and civil society too? Bringing in more stakeholders, bringing in more collaborators, gave us a better chance of success. This was how Singapore Inc was built,” observes Tham Sai Choy, former CBD member and an independent director on the DBS Group and Keppel boards.
Active Participation Not Checklist Representation
As had been done for listed companies, CBD introduced an achievable target of 30 per cent women on boards for the public and people sectors to work towards.
Those who supported this introduction of voluntary measures outnumbered those who saw an enforced quota as a guarantee to increased representation. The quota approach, some argued, could encourage the token appointment of women to boards, undercutting corporate meritocracy.
“We were aware that Europe was raising the bar and getting success from quotas. It was quite easy to think we needed a quota too. But some of us felt that it would not suit local needs,” recalls Tham.
“Singapore was going through a transformation from a very rules-based society to one that valued more individual action. A lot of us were supportive of having less rules where possible, as reflected by the comply-or-explain corporate governance regime. And in my own experience, I was seeing far more women in senior management here in Singapore, than in Europe, the UK or Australia. So why not look at other ways to raise women’s board participation and address the underlying root causes?”
"Coming to this stage without a gender quota on boards makes it more sustainable. We're seeing organisations recognise that board diversity is part of corporate governance; that it makes their boards and businesses more resilient. Of course, now we're talking about gender. Going forward, there are other areas that need to be brought into focus."
Community-wide Commitment for Change
Unlike the early years of closed-door discussions – to encourage action without casting a spotlight on board diversity’s poorest performers – CBD adopted a more visible strategy for rallying the community. Forums, roundtables, networking sessions and media interactions became regular. In an increasingly complex business environment marked by a surge of new technologies, changes in consumer behaviour and geopolitics, board diversity, with its enhanced problem solving, had become more critical than before.
There was also vigour within the director ecosystem. The Singapore Institute of Directors (SID), Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), SCWO BoardAgender, Singapore Business Federation, business schools of National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and INSEAD, consultancies such as Deloitte, EY and PwC, and major executive search firms were carrying the board diversity agenda and fuelling meaningful conversations.
Behind the scenes, the Public Service Division (PSD), in enabling effective government, provided statutory boards with guidance on board renewals and composition. Regulatory bodies were also pressing for change. The Code of Corporate Governance and SGX listing rules were amended to mandate board diversity disclosures and to cap independent director tenure, creating opportunities for board renewal.
The Code of Governance for Charities and Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs), when revised in 2023, likewise brought attention to diversity in board composition, including skills, knowledge and experience. Smaller charities, in particular, could face operational challenges – limited resources, urgent community needs, and funding concerns – that might take precedence over board diversity considerations. Though, on leveraging talents fit for purpose, Chair of the Charity Council Theresa Goh observes: “When a director’s dedication is combined with professional skills, that creates a powerful synergy.”
By end-2024, all three public, private and people sectors had made commendable strides in raising board gender diversity. In CBD’s six years from 2019 to 2024, directorships held by women at Top 100 SGX-listed companies rose 10 percentage points to 25.1 per cent; statutory boards leapt 11 percentage points to 34.3 per cent; Top 100 IPCs a grew by 4.2 percentage points to 31.8 per cent.
For those with an affinity for comparative scoring: Singapore’s board gender diversity numbers, had now surpassed the 23.3 per cent global average for large companies – though behind some countries that chose to legislate a gender quota.
“The issue on the outset may appear women focused, but it’s not about women. It’s about business; it’s about talent. It’s the war for talent in the global economy,” adds Janet Ang, a tech veteran, former CBD member and current chair of the Public Transport Council.
“Gender will remain a key focus for CBD the next five years and beyond – it is not the time to ease off the accelerator. But we must also broaden our lens to embrace the ‘Big D’ of diversity, which spans skill sets, experiences, age, and cultural backgrounds. Everyone brings something different to the table. What truly matters is cultivating diversity of thought."
The Next Lap: Broader Diversity
“Coming to this stage without a gender quota on boards makes it more sustainable. We’re seeing organisations recognise that board diversity is part of corporate governance; that it makes their boards and businesses more resilient,” observes SS Teo. “Of course, now we’re talking about gender. Going forward, there are other areas that need to be brought into focus.”
Alongside significant progress in women’s board participation, a greater appreciation for diversity in domain knowledge and industry expertise, is also observed. The 2025 Singapore Board Diversity Index, developed by WTW with SID and James Cook University (Singapore), found that boards with five or more industry expertise types rose from 15 per cent in 2020 to 33 per cent in 2025. Challenges, however, remain, particularly in achieving cultural diversity and balancing age diversity.
“It is not just about having diversity; inclusivity is important too,” says Yeoh Oon Jin, Chair of SID, the national association for company directors, which together with CBD has played a pivotal role in supporting companies in their board diversity journey. “A board with healthy dynamics is generally inclusive and offers psychological safety that encourages diverse viewpoints. As a result, boardroom discussions are more robust and lead to better decision-making.”
The question of what’s next in Singapore’s board diversity journey weighs on Gan Seow Kee and Goh Swee Chen. The two global leaders succeeded Loh Boon Chye and Mildred Tan as CBD Co-chairs in January 2025 at the end of their six-years in service. They are supported by 11 members of the 2025-2026 Council, including representatives from SGX RegCo, Temasek International, SBF, PSD, SCWO, the Charity Council, and other veteran board practitioners.
In this new phase of advocacy, one thing is certain: Today’s leadership must be well-prepared to navigate harsh new global realities.
“Gender will remain a key focus for CBD the next five years and beyond – it is not the time to ease off the accelerator. But we must also broaden our lens to embrace the ‘Big D’ of diversity, which spans skill sets, experiences, age, and cultural backgrounds. Everyone brings something different to the table. What truly matters is cultivating diversity of thought. It is the mix of perspectives that drives innovation, challenges groupthink, and enables organisations to adapt more effectively in a complex, fast-changing world,” shares Goh Swee Chen, Chairman of the Nanyang Technological University Board of Trustees and board director at JTC Corporation and Singapore Airlines.
Diversity is an asset when harnessed appropriately, Gan Seow Kee, Chairman of Singapore LNG Corporation and former Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, opines. “From experience, I’ve seen how diversity at the decision-making table can be a competitive strength.”
This article was first published in Speaking with the Boards 2025, an accompaniment to Singapore Board Diversity Review 2025.
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