theBoardlist
theBoardlist CEO Shannon Gordon
Call it the pipeline problem, the talent shortage, or the lowered bar - Shannon Gordon thinks the explanations many founders and investors use to justify an all-male board are all fallacies.
As the CEO of theBoardlist, a network that helps connect startups with qualified female board candidates, Gordon is one of the foremost experts on gender diversity in the boardroom. Since taking over the organization from founder and president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy in May 2018, Gordon says she's seen proof that the pipeline problem just "doesn't exist."
Transform talent with learning that worksCapability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More "It's always been a challenge, especially with board seats because so many are filled through referral," Gordon told Business Insider. "You as a founder ask your buddies, or colleagues, or investors for recommendation, and those networks tend to be homogeneous. It hits women and minorities hard because these networks are CEOs or board directors. We don't have those connections."
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Gordon said the outlook for gender parity at the board level is promising, especially with a new California law signed in September 2018 that required all publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to have at least one woman on the board by the end of 2019.
"I definitely think the tide is turning but none of us would say it's as fast as we want it to be," Gordon said. "If you as a founder don't have a deep network outside your investors, then you can leverage tools like theBoardlist that allow you to reach into other networks to find diverse candidates that meet your needs."
Singh Cassidy started theBoardlist in 2015 to help prove that it wasn't for lack of talent or the supposed pipeline problem that women weren't getting a seat at the board table. The network acts similarly to LinkedIn where members can search for candidates or list themselves as possible board candidates with specific areas of expertise.
"Be willing to look at leaders with the right experience even if they are not a CEO; the key is that they have relevant expertise to you in an area that is critical to your business," Singh Cassidy told Business Insider via email. "Set a mandate for the % of diverse candidates you expect to see in the pipeline; it doesn't just 'happen' naturally and needs to be a deliberate choice going in if you want a diverse board as the outcome."
Here are six of the top female executives from theBoardlist and what they could add to a startup's board: