‘Unbalanced boards due to lack of women to promote’

A LACK of women at senior level in Britain’s boardrooms is not the fault of company chairmen with outdated views, but a realistic reflection of the numbers of suitable candidates available for such roles, one of Scotland’s top executive search specialists has argued.

Jamie Livingston, head of the eponymous executive search business, believes that the recent drive to “fix” the balance at the top of organisations has not treated the root of the problem.

He said: “The imbalance in board appointments is directly proportionate to the imbalance in the talent pool from which these positions are sourced – that is, there are significantly more men than women in the ‘target’ talent pool.”

“Until we address the number of women moving through each of these stages of career progression, it is illogical to think we can create better balance at the top.”