Sponsorship

Closing the Gender Gap: Global Perspectives on Women in the Boardroom

Friday, September 17 04:00 AM BST to 04:00 AM BST

Thursday, September 16, 2010, from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PMThe SAIS Center for Transatlantic RelationsKenney Auditorium, 1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.

Paul Hastings is proud to sponsor a day-long conference on Thursday, September 16th to examine (1) the legislative, regulatory, and market-based strategies that have been launched in a growing number of countries to close the gender gap on the boards of publicly traded companies; and (2) the impact of diversity initiatives on corporate performance. While women have made major strides in business and education, the percentage of female board members in many countries remains in the single digits. Increasingly, foreign governments and stock exchanges are using a variety of approaches to accelerate the pace of change.

The conference will bring together domestic and international participants, including government officials, academics, corporate executives, institutional investors and advisors, stock exchange executives, and associations of women directors. Among the featured speakers are SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar and Intel Corporation Board Chair Jane Shaw. We will examine:

• The social, legal, political and economic forces driving legislation or other remedial action;

• Country case studies (e.g., Norway, France, United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain), exemplifying a variety of approaches designed to achieve gender balance on boards;

• Research on the economic argument for closing the gender gap on boards, and studies measuring the impact of remedial efforts on corporate performance;

• Best practices for increasing gender diversity among corporate directors and top executives.

For more information and to register, please visit the SAIS website here.