Building Societies Association
Feature
Diverse directors make up building society boards
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Contact: Andrew Gall Date: 30 Jun 2009 |
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A building society’s board of directors ensures that the society is run appropriately in the interests of its members.
Recent analysis of building society boards suggests that they are more diverse than many boards of directors of publicly quoted companies, such as banks, and show that societies draw on a wide range of professional expertise, skills and experience from a diverse set of directors to help to ensure they are run for the benefit of their members.
For example, 13.8% of all building society directors were female, compared to 11.7% of FTSE 100 directors, and just 7.0% of FTSE 250 directors.
Across the UK’s 53 building societies, there were 471 directors, of which 142 were executive directors, and 329 were non-executives. Non-executive directors are not involved in the day-to-day running of the society, but monitor the activities and strategy of the society.
The average building society board is therefore made up of approximately three executive directors and 6 non-executives. At FTSE 100 companies, there are about four executives and eight non-executive directors, on average.
The average age of building society executive directors is 49.9 years old, and the average age of a non-executive is 57.9 years. This compares to directors at FTSE 100 companies where executives are on average 51.0 years old and non-executives are 59.1 years old.
Building society executive directors had served 6.9 years on average, and non-executives had served 7.1 years. The comparable figures for FTSE 100 directors were 5.5 years for executives and 4.4 years for non-executives.
Based on publicly available information, building society directors between them hold 167 professional accountancy or financial qualifications, 82 banking or insurance qualifications, 38 legal qualifications; there are also 24 qualified surveyors.
On top of this, many other non-executive directors bring extensive experience and valuable skills from other fields to the building society boardroom to help provide effective direction.
Note: All data is drawn from annual reports published by building societies for financial years ending between 5 February 2008 and 2 February 2009. The FTSE 100 and 250 information is taken from the Female FTSE Report 2008, published by the Cranfield University School of Management:
