A BUSINESS-LED campaign promoting diversity and inclusion with a focus on gender balance on boards and C-suites, 30% Club Malaysia has appointed Maybank Kim Eng Group CEO Ami Moris as its chairman.
In this role, Moris will lead the drive to advancing women leaders on corporate boards and management teams in Malaysia.
The 30% Club Malaysia is part of a global campaign led by chairs and CEOs taking action to increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at board and senior management levels.
As of July 1, women representation on the boards of the Top 100 Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs) stood at 25.5%, 4.5 percentage points away from reaching the 30% pivotal point.
During the same period, women occupied 17% of total board seats of companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, an increase of 6.3 percentage points from 2015. Currently, there are four all-male boards in the Top 100 PLCs.
As part of its DEI efforts at board levels, the 30% Club Malaysia in collaboration with PwC Malaysia have established the Board Mentoring Scheme (BMS) in 2017 whereby 68 women have to-date successfully undertaken this nine-month mentoring scheme with 33% of them have already been appointed to boards of companies.
“In order to sustain and continue our mission, the 30% Club Malaysia has adopted the Global 30% Club model which calls for corporations to play a more integral part in driving the campaign’s mission and goals by assuming a corporate sponsor position and taking on the Club chair role on a two-year rotational basis,” noted 30% Club Malaysia founding chair Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar.
“The corporate sponsor (Maybank) will appoint a leader from among its own senior talent to be the chair of the 30% Club and provide secretariat support to the Club.”
With Moris’ appointment, Zarinah and co-founding chair Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah as well as founding executives Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar and Anne Abraham will move into advisory roles.
Commenting on her appointment, Moris said current data shows that companies with at least one-third women board composition correlates with a 38% higher median return on equity (ROE), thus naturally attracting better and larger investors.
“Our mission is to close the gap to 30% and start working with the next 100 listed companies as capital market leaders,” she enthused.
“With an ESG-first (environmental, social and governance) mindset moving global allocation of capital towards quality, diverse and inclusive companies, Malaysia needs to be well-positioned to promote the investability of our leading listed companies to maintain ASEAN leadership.” – Oct 20, 2021
