CEOs for Women on Boards

Boardbound by Women’s Leadership Foundation knows that CEOs, Board Chairs and Nominating and Goveernance Chairs choose new board directors. That is why we have engaged CEOs and Board directors ever since 2016. It is our mission to inspire leaders to champion and pursue greater board diversity. And we know that hearing from fellow CEOs and board directors is the best inspiration of all.

We are very grateful for the CEOs and board directors who have hosted sessions, led breakout discussions and shared best practices and challenges in their road to increasing board diversity. We applaud them for making the progress from 7% women on boards in 2011 to 24% in 2022.

2022 Hosted by Javier Rodriguez, CEO of DaVita

DaVita made a commitment to have a majority diverse board and delivered upon that commitment. The discussion at this virtual event focused on the future of work which underwent disruption with the COVID 19 pandemic. Javier Rodriguez invited fellow CEOs Dave Boennighausen, Anne Noonan and Adam Contos to lead small group discussions probing deep.

2021 hosted by john kelley, ceo and chair of cerehealth

John Kelley has been a long-time supporter of gender board diversity since the first CEOs for Women on Boards session in 2016 and long before in his actions. It was great to hear from Noreen Doyle, outgoing Board Chair of Newmont which had five women on their board, and John Hayes, Cahir and CEO of Ball Corporation which had four women on their board. Eight companies that had gender-balanced boards were recognized at this event.

2020 hosted by Extraction Oil for Natural Resources Companies

Natural Resource companies are a very important part of Colorado’s economy—40% of Colorado public companies were in oil & gas, mining, basic materials and other natural resource industries in 2020 census study of Women on Colorado Boards: State of the State. Natural Resource companies doubled the proportion of companies which included at least one woman on their boards from 35% in 2017 to 76% in 2019. The panel discussed the value of board diversity and the paths to achieving it.

2019 hosted by Mark Hunter, CEO of Molson Coors

Mark Hunter hosted fellow CEOs and board directors at Molson Coors downtown Denver headquarters. Gary Goldberg, CEO of Newmont, received the Champion for Women on Boards award for the amazing work he did with Rose Robeson and Carol Burt in contacting Coloraro Fortune 1000 company CEOs in 2016-2018 to personaly discuss the benefits of opening board positions to women.

2018 hosted by Red Robin Gourmet Burgers

The CEOs and board directors celebrated that Colorado had 13.5% women on Colorado public company boards as of June 2018 which was 3 percentage points above 2015.  And there was greater progress with the F1000 companies which had 19.6% which was nearly 5 percentage points above 2015 results.

2017 hosted by Gary Goldberg, ceo of Newmont

Newmont was one of the two first Colorado public companies to have three women on their board. This was especially noteworthy for a mining company where women are typically underrepresented. In October 2017, Noreen Doyle, Board Chair of Newmont Mining, came from the United Kingdom to share their company's journey in creating a strategic diverse board over time.  Jerre Stead, CEO of IHS Markit, conducted the fireside chat with Noreen. Lt. Governor Donna Lynne also attended and spoke of the importance of strong diverse boards to Colorado’s economy.

2017 hosted by Kent Thiry, CEO and Chair of DaVita

Kent Thiry, CEO of DaVita, hosted a panel of speakers at DaVita's rooftop of their world headquarters in downtown Denver. About 18 months earlier in Fall 2015, DaVita made a pledge that they would have a “majority-diverse” board within two years. They hit this milestone. Kent invited fellow CEOs to join a panel to discuss their companies’ approaches to board diversity.

Colorado CEOS for Women on Boards support Legislative Resolution

2016 Hosted by Jerre Stead, Dave Liniger and Pattye Moore

Three CEOs came together to host our original CEOs for Women on Boards events in March and October 2016. They were Jerre Stead, Chair & CEO of IHS, Dave Lininger, Chair & CEO of RE/MAX, and Pattye Moore, Chair of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. They were instrumental in setting a stretch goal to improve gender diversity on Colorado public company boards by 50% from 11% in 2015 to 15% in 2018. This goal was achieved by June 2019 and was a marked improvement from the relatively stagnant movement over the last four years..