The Women’s Forum of New York salutes Terry Lundgren and Macy’s as corporate champions for advancing women on corporate boards and inspiring other companies to follow suit. Terry Lundgren, Chairman of Macy’s, states that his company was recognized in 2015 for being 1 of 30 companies in the F1000 with more than 40% of women on their board. Macy’s currently has 50% of women on their board of directors.” I just think that every company should strive for that because the conversation around the boardroom table changes in a very positive and effective way.”
When Terry was first looking to add women to his board of directors, he was seeking CEO candidates. “You have to look beyond that. In our case, we looked for CFOs, COOs, Chief Marketing Directors, Chief Strategists – and we found a tremendous pool of talented women. To me, that is the secret sauce.” The pipeline of qualified women boardroom candidates are out there – company CEOs/Boards simply have to be intentional about gender parity like Terry and the Macy’s Board.
Terry states, “I would challenge every Fortune 500 CEO to take on that personal challenge to get to parity, to get to 40%, and help move the United States up from ranked 14th in the world – which is unacceptable – to something more like first.”
To learn more, join us in New York this November for the 2017 Breakfast of Corporate Champions, where we honor companies who are making it happen and hear leading CEOs share why gender balance in the boardroom is just smart business.