Women Make Headway on Georgia Boards

Written by Patty Rasmussen Tuesday, November 15 2011

Veronica Biggins, left, and Ann-Marie McGaughey

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright famously said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who do not help other women,” in which case she would have enjoyed the Annual Study and Awards Dinner of the Board of Directors Network (BDN), held Oct. 20 at the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel.

The women honored that night, and many others in the room, all have made promoting women part of their personal mission. And this year, there was plenty to cheer about. For the first time, a majority of Georgia’s 136 public companies has a woman seated on the board. Equally exciting was the news that all Fortune 500 companies in Georgia also have at least one woman on their board.

“It is great news,” says Ann-Marie McGaughey, president of BDN and a partner in the corporate group at law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge. “It’s great that it’s 56 percent, but when you look at the number of women in executive leadership, it’s still so small. The thing we focused our celebration on was that this (improvement) wasn’t just a little over 50 percent; last year 49 percent of Georgia’s public companies had a woman on the board, and this year we’re at 56 percent – that’s a 7-percent increase. And that was significant. You’re never going to get where you want to be without hitting that halfway mark.”

	McGaughey

The Board of Directors Network is a Georgia nonprofit with a simple mission, it advocates for women in both executive leadership and on corporate boards. The reason for such advocacy is as simple as the mission. “Good governance is a focus of corporate America, and with good governance comes diversity of thought,” says McGaughey. “Women bring that diversity to boardroom dynamics.”

In order to accomplish its goal, BDN publishes an annual study of women on boards and in executive leadership of Georgia’s public companies. The study highlights statistics and helps raise awareness of the need for greater diversity in the highest levels of corporate governance. “I’m a big believer in awareness,” McGaughey says. “People have to first be aware of the statistics, both positive and negative, including that research has shown when you have board diversity it’s reflected in your corporate results.”

BDN also acknowledges outstanding women in the boardroom, and those standing just outside the door. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award is given to a woman already on a board who, in turn, promotes other women for board positions. This year’s recipient was Veronica Biggins, currently serving on the boards of Southwest Airlines and Avnet Inc. and on the trustee boards of the Woodruff Arts Center and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Biggins is managing director at Diversified Search, one of the largest women-owned executive search firms in the United States, and she was recently named the lead for the company’s Board of Directors Practice.

Three women were selected for the Executive Leadership Honor Roll. “These are women who are in the pipeline,” says McGaughey. “They are ready career wise, to get on a board.” The newest members of the Executive Leadership Honor Roll are Debra Kuper, vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for AGCO Corp.; Robin Sangston, vice president of legal affairs and chief compliance officer for Cox Communications Inc.; and Ann Stallard, CEO of Graphic Communications Corp.

From left, Robin Sangston, Debra Kuper, Ann Stallard, and Ann-Marie McGaughey

“We chose Veronica, Debra, Robin, and Ann not just because of their career accomplishments,” says McGaughey. “They were also chosen because they have advocated for other women in the community. They’ve each done it in different ways, but all made advancing other women part of their accomplishments.”

While women make up a large portion of BDN membership, McGaughey was pleased to see more men in the audience at the annual dinner. “Seeing men at that dinner is huge because they hear stories that we (women) take for granted,” she says. “It’s not a woman’s event; it’s not a woman’s issue. It’s a business issue. To me, that’s moving the needle. It’s a different needle; it’s the engagement of men.”

Engaging men in the mission is essential to combating the stereotype that having women on corporate and nonprofit boards is just a “woman’s issue.”

“BDN wants anybody who supports the mission of getting more women on public boards and executive leadership,” she says. “I want to include men. To me our mission has to do with women, but it’s not a woman’s organization. I have been asked ‘What do you want? When will you stop counting, 75 percent, 90 percent, 100 percent?’ I don’t know what the number is, but it’s not a number. It’s when women are just ‘board members’ and not ‘women board members.’”

---

Patty Rasmussen is an Atlanta-based freelance writer. She spent 12 years covering the Atlanta Braves for ChopTalk Magazine and has written for Major League Baseball publications, Georgia Trend magazine, WebMD, and Blue Ridge Country.