Beyond diversity targets, companies' strategic plans are also helpful disclosures: BlackRock

WHILE disclosing targets on board gender diversity is a meaningful indicator of how a company's board approaches the wider concept of board diversity, other helpful disclosures for investors would also include strategic factors that will impact a company's financial performance.

Speaking at a virtual panel discussion on board diversity organised by the Singapore Institute of Directors, Shinbo Won, managing director of asset management firm BlackRock, said that diversity targets should tie back in with a company and its board's capability to create financial returns over time, and less for the sake of diversity itself.

"How do we perform as a financial return-generating entity for investors over time? What are the kind of skillsets that we actually need on this board to guide the company to do that? What are some of the risks? What are the opportunities," said Won during the webinar on Wednesday (May 4).