New Zealand's IoD moves to address boardroom gender imbalance

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has announced the launch of a new initiative aimed at getting more women into boardrooms in New Zealand.

Its new Mentoring for Diversity programme is set to run from January 1st to December 31st 2012, with 30 chairmen and senior directors giving up their time to help 30 well-qualified women to gain the extra skills needed to secure boardroom positions.

"Companies that embrace the principle of diversity and put it into practice invariably derive a comparative business advantage," argued IoD president Denham Shale.

At present, figures from the Human Rights Commission show that just 9.32 per cent of New Zealand's directors are female.

The news follows comments earlier this year by NZX chairman Andrew Harmos, who noted the time is now right to get more women into the country's upper echelons of business.

He gave his backing to proposed rule changes for exchange members, whereby firms would be obliged to disclose levels of gender and ethnic diversity within their organisation.