Empowering Change: Black Women on Boards Paving the Way
Empowering Change: Black Women on Boards Paving the Way
When people first encounter our organization, Black Women on Boards (BWOB)—a collective of over 200 senior executives shaping the future of boardrooms at the most innovative private and public companies—they are often surprised to learn that we had no grand vision of launching a global organization, nor a meticulously crafted five-year strategy plan. Instead, we simply saw a need and met the moment in a way that has fueled extraordinary outcomes.
The Spark of an Idea
In the fall of 2020, two significant events were unfolding. First, my co-founder, Robin Washington, and I were continuing to receive calls asking if we would join another board. However, we were at capacity. This led us to host a Zoom video conversation with a group of 18 Black women to explore how best to bring more Black women onto boards.
We discovered that these women weren’t receiving recruiting calls—not because they weren’t qualified, but because CEOs, board members, and search firms didn’t know about them. For those unfamiliar with how this process works, the people who tend to get the calls are typically already on boards.
It was clear to us that we could help remove this obstacle by creating access and introductions. We got to work doing exactly that, behind the scenes, entirely via word of mouth. Thus, BWOB was launched.
Igniting a Movement
As recently as 1971, when Patricia Roberts Harris joined the board of IBM, there had never been a Black woman on the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company. Since then, we have much progress to celebrate. BWOB alone has, since its launch, placed 40 members on public, private, and advisory boards.
However, there’s still much work to be done. For example, around the time we were beginning this work, Deloitte found that of the 5,124 Fortune 500 board seats in 2020, at least 97 percent were held by directors who are not Black women. It’s crucial to seek out and analyze board trends like this to measure progress beyond the anecdotal.
I frequently tell members that they may well be the first Black woman on any given board—but what matters even more is that they’re not the last. Yes, we’re seeing a pullback in DEI commitments. But here’s the thing: there always have been and always will be headwinds. It’s up to us to find a way through.
Fueling Future Success
Essential to membership in BWOB is a shared understanding and commitment to always be “sending the elevator back down” to support not only other members but also, crucially, our future generations of leaders.
One of the several ways we’ve done that is by creating the BWOB Rising Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization with our initial dozen early and mid-career members, which we’ll be scaling to 100 over the next 24 months.
As for BWOB, we always enjoy hearing from senior executives at various points on their public and private board journeys, and from potential sponsors to continue fueling our momentum. Learn more at bwob.io.
Merline Saintil is the lead independent director of Rocket Lab. She also serves on the board of Fortune 100 company TD Synnex, as well as the boards of GitLab, Symbotic, and Evolv Technology.
