Yesterday we learned that women will not achieve parity with male CEOs among FTSE 100 firms for another 53 years at the current rate of progress. Now we learn more about today’s CEOs …
Does the face of “Andrew” look familiar? It could be a CEO from central casting. But in fact, AI has blended photographs of all the CEOs in the FTSE 100, sourced from companies’ websites and Linkedin, to create “Andrew”.
A cursory study of this visage will reveal, aside from his remarkably good skin, a certain lack of femininity. This is of course because only about 10% of FTSE CEOs are women.
Equality in FTSE 100
Women in finance: Aviva CEO slams sexist comments at AGM
Gender equality in finance ’30 years off’
Huge pay gap for female FTSE 350 financial services directors
This should not be a surprise for anyone of course – the lack of diversity at the head of leading businesses has been written about ad infinitum – but still it’s nice to put a face to the name.
The name “Andrew” was chosen because there are more Andrews – and Simons – among CEOs in the UK’s top firms than there are women in total. There are 88 men and just 11 women, after the departure of Alison Rose from NatWest Group following the Coutts/Farage debacle. Paul Thwaite, Rose’s replacement, is only an interim CEO, so was excluded from the figures – which is why they don’t add up to 100. Well spotted though! The female CEOs are:
- Milena Mondini de Focatiis, Admiral Group
- Amanda Blanc, Aviva
- Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Entain
- Emma Walmsley, GSK
- Liv Garfield, Severn Trent
- Jennie Daly, Taylor Wimpey
- Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group
- Alison Brittain, Whitbread
- Debra Crew, Diageo
- Louise Beardmore, United Utilities
- Allison Kirkby, BT, starting in January 2024
Business culture firm People Managing People analysed data of CEOs from the FTSE 100 to find that, on balance, Andrew is 55, and a Cambridge University economics graduate with a private school education. He’s employed by a financial services company, where he earns an annual salary of £4,196,000. This means he only has to work for two days to earn the UK’s average salary.
The data also revealed that female CEOs were paid 23.5% less (£3,371,000) than male CEOs and that all CEOs were 9.4 times more likely to have gone to private school vs the UK population.
The most attended university by CEOs was Cambridge, with 8% attending, followed by Oxford, with 6%. CEOs were most likely to have studied economics, with 19% studying the subject, sometimes in combination with finance or accounting.
At Personnel Today we wondered whether the excellent performance of women in the Nordic CEO likeability rankings would accelerate the rise of CEOs amid the FTSE 100 bros.
Interestingly, as People Managing People points out, in 2020, there were just five female CEOs in the FTSE 100. So, that could mean female CEO parity by 2030, right? Not according to INvolve, which has claimed we have to wait until 2076 for parity.
The highest-paid CEO is Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca. According to recent annual company reports he was paid £15,323,000, while the lowest paid was Octavio Alvídrez, the CEO of mining company Fresnillo, stuck on a mere £731,170, poor man.
“This glimpse into the corporate world underscores undeniable privileges and gender disparities for the top jobs at some of the biggest companies in the country,” said People Managing People’s Finn Bartram, rather stating the obvious. But it needed to be said. Again.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
