Board of Directors

Diversity in the Board Room

November 7, 2020 /

The composition of a Board of Directors can directly impact its effectiveness. Diversity in experiences, viewpoints, expertise, and temperaments all contribute to better ideas.  

Note: This post is co-authored by Jen Baird, CEO of Fifth Eye, and Peter Falzon, CEO of Ripple Science.

Jen and Peter:  On the topic of diversity in the boardroom, there is a lot that any startup CEO can say about the best way to “curate” a Board of Directors.  The basics include ensuring diverse perspectives like management, domain, investor/finance, governance/legal, and independent industry expertise are all represented.  We also consider who we want in the room when there is a problem, so temperament is important as well because you never know when the going will get tough — as it almost inevitably will at some point. Maturity, wisdom, insight, the ability to listen, and contribute appropriately all make for a constructive boardroom environment.   

Jen:  My co-author of this post, Peter, and I were standing together with cocktails at a recent event when Peter mentioned that it is important to him to have women on his Board of Directors because it changes the dynamic in the room. “What do you think about that effect, Jen? Does it make a difference in how you structure your Board?” I thought for a moment. What was the difference between an all-male Board and a Board with women on it? Suddenly I realized I had no idea. “Well, Peter, I wouldn’t know,” I said with a wry smile.

Peter:  Of course, Jen has never experienced an all-male board meeting! We all can only live in our own skin and bring our own perspective to our role as Directors in the boardroom. One way diversity is hard to understand is that we cannot know what the dynamic is like when we are not in it.  In my experience, women change the dynamic in the boardroom. To think about it another way, let us change “men” to “straight men.” In this scenario, I can make a similar point: it is important to me not to have all-straight men on my Board because of the dynamic effects.  And I do know this because I have been on boards with mostly straight-men that, at the time, did not realize I was not one of them as soon as I find the opportunity to fit in “my partner” or “Kevin” when the ordinary course of conversation takes a personal turn, the dynamic changes.

So what is driving the change in dynamic?  I do not think it is so much “women are more empathic” or “gay men are more sensitive” at the source.  My observation is that this interaction is more fundamental. People are more thoughtful and less likely to vocalize unconscious bias when they are aware that there is someone not like them in the room.  

Jen and Peter:  On top of the shift in dynamic to a more thoughtful tone, you can layer the benefits that come from diverse experiences, points of view, and ways of thinking as you tackle problems together. Having some diversity all adds up to a much better board experience for the members as well as performance on behalf of the company.

And finally, the makeup of the board, like the makeup of the senior management team, sets the tone for the culture of the organization we are building, and we find there is strength in diversity for many reasons. Especially because we have observed that assembling a group of individuals who do not all think alike correlates pretty closely with a group of individuals that do not all look alike — and that results in an idea-rich environment to provide fertile ground for startup success.


Special thanks to Peter Falzon who raised this topic with me and co-authored this post, which is certainly one that I could not write alone!

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