Mentoring initiative aims to put more women on boards

A mentoring initiative has been launched to help women become non-executive directors.

The initiative, Women for Boards, aims to help increase the number of high-quality women directors on the boards of FTSE 250 and FTSE 350 companies.

According to the Guardian, it will pair potential candidates with mentors such as Sainsbury’s board member and former newsreader Anna Ford and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) president Helen Alexander, a non-executive director of Centrica and Rolls Royce.

Ford said: “We believe we can improve the productivity of boards by improving their diversity.”

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Centrica and Cadbury chairman Roger Carr added: “Women win board positions on merit but add value to the role with a different mindset, a different skill-set and a different style.

“Boards are intellectually and socially enriched by the presence of women and are consistently more effective through balanced judgement and opinion in decision-making.”