Women on Boards’ Conference

JIoD in partnership with IFC successfully conducted a conference on “Women on Boards; The Impact of Gender Diversity in Boardrooms on Companies’ Financial Performance”, which took place on December 14, 2015. More than 110 business professionals from both genders representing a variety of companies and sectors in Jordan attended this event.

The conference featured seven sessions: opening keynote session by JIoD and IFC presenting the key findings from the “Gender Research Study”; a panel on “Gender Diversity and it’s Impact Towards Bulding Effective Boards” ; a panel on “The Impact of Gender Diversity on Companies Performance and Operations”; and, a keynote speech by Amman Stock Exchange regarding the national commitment towards gender diversity. The conference was concluded with a brief graduation ceremony graduating 13 participants completing JIoD courses.

JIoD board members were also recognized for their continued efforts and support to the growth of JIoD.

The first discussion panel was led by Dr. Ahmad Attiga, Country Manager & Head of Mission, IFC-World Bank Group. The panel discussed “Gender Diversity and its Impact Towards Building Effective Boards”. Dr. Attiga facilitated a rich discussion with distinguished participants: Dr. Omar Al Razzaz (Chairman of Jordan Ahli Bank), H.E. Majd Shweikeh (Minister of Information and Communication Technology) and Mrs. Mary Nazzal-Batayneh (Barrister, Deputy Chairperson Landmark Hotels).

The second discussion panel was led by Mr. Laith Al Qasem, Chairman of JIoD. He facilitated a high-level discussion on ‘The Impact of Gender Diversity on Companies Performance and Operations” with another three exceptional speakers: H.E. Hala Bsaisu (former Minister of Social Development and Managing Director of AYA Consultancy for Development), Mrs. Nadia Shahin (General Manager, Amin Kawar And Sons Co.) and Mr. Emile Cubeisy (Managing Partner, Silicon Badia).

The study covered 1,200 companies; 930 Jordanian Private Shareholding companies And 237 Jordanian Publicly listed companies.

Among these 1200 companies 18% of them have one woman on boards, 4% of them have two women on boards, 0.3% of them have three women on boards and only 0,2% of the companies have four women on their boards.

In publicly listed companies, study showed that:

• 78% of them has no representation for women on their boards
• 66 female board members out of 1,866 board members sitting on the boards of the public listed companies
• The study showed a positive correlation between gender diversity in boardrooms and the financial performance of companies. Public listed companies with women on boards had, on average,
• A return on assets 3 times higher than companies without female representation in boardrooms.
• Return on equity was 2 times higher in companies with female representation on the board than companies without female representation.