WomenCorporateDirectors launches Global Nominating Commission.

• Position: DIRECTOR RECRUITING

Recognizing the need for greater diversity on corporate boards -- from the Fortune 500 to the FTSE 100 and beyond -- WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) has launched the WCD Global Nominating Commission. The new Commission was unveiled atWCD's second Global Institute in New York, held May 1-2, 2012.

The Commission is a high-level task force of select nominating committee chairs and members from around the world, as well as CEOs, focused on proactively building diverse boards and candidate slates.

"With greater demand on boards and from boards to increase diversity, the Global Nominating Commission will be an important center of influence for nominating committees worldwide," said Alison A. Winter, global co-chair and co-founder of WCD and a director at Nordstrom Inc.

"With the Commission, we are taking on the next challenge -- urging nominating committees, who determine the composition of the board, to focus on global diversity," said Henrietta H. Fore, global co-chair of WCD. "We will work with these important decision makers in a whole new way." Fore is CEO and chairman of Holsman International and a director at ExxonMobil Corp. and Theravance Inc.

The Commission will consolidate data on director candidates and report effective resources and approaches for building diverse boards and candidate slates. Initially, the Commission will:

* Collect and report business cases of effective approaches to building global, diverse boards.

* Develop matrices of skill sets needed for boards in 2012 and beyond, to be shared with corporate nominating and governance committees worldwide.

* Encourage search firms to assure that every director slate includes women and other diverse candidates from around the world.

* Call for nominating committees to develop and release their boards' approach to diversity in the candidate selection process.

* Provide insight on how nominating committees can make best use of annual board evaluations.

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