media release
30 January 2025
HESTA votes against chairs and directors of over 40 ASX300 companies lagging on gender diversity
HESTA has taken decisive action in the 2024 Annual General Meeting season, leveraging its shareholder power to vote against the election or re-election of chairs and select directors at over 40 ASX300 companies that have not made sufficient progress on gender diversity.
The $92 billion industry super fund voted against the proposed elections at companies that did not meet the gender diversity expectations outlined in HESTA's gender voting policy.
HESTA CEO Debby Blakey said a lack of gender balance at the highest echelons of corporate Australia was a material financial risk that could impact investment performance for members over the long term.
“It’s hard to believe there are still companies with no women in their executive leadership teams or their boardrooms.” Ms Blakey said.
“Gender balance is not only fairer but also smart business”. “Research has shown[1] that greater diversity in leadership improves business decision-making, corporate governance, and financial performance, and this can improve the retirement outcomes of our more than one million members.”
HESTA has a policy to consider voting against select Director elections at ASX300 companies where the board has less than 30 per cent female representation and against chairs of companies employing single-gender executive teams. Since 2017, HESTA has voted against the election of directors on all-male boards.
The latest Chief Executive Women Census shows progress is being made, with the number of single-gender executive teams decreasing from 28 to 20 over the past year[2]. However, just 27 per cent of ASX300 companies have gender balanced executive leadership teams[3], indicating there is still significant work to do.
The ACSI 2024 Annual Report highlighted progress in board gender diversity within the ASX300 in FY23-24. There were 125 female directors appointed to ASX300 boards, equal to 46.4 per cent of appointments, increasing women's representation to 37.5 per cent[4], up from 35%[5] the previous year.
Ahead of the 2024 AGM season, HESTA wrote to the CEOs and chairs of ASX300 companies to encourage gender balance at board and executive level and also right across the workplace. HESTA encouraged companies to set targets and develop comprehensive strategies to achieve them.
“The approach to improving gender diversity can’t just be top-down, it also needs to be bottom-up. Improving gender diversity across our biggest listed companies can help support long-term value creation, while providing more opportunities and better experiences for women in the workplace. We believe this can help improve the value of our members’ investments over the long-term and contribute to a better financial future for them.” Ms Blakey said.
Almost 80 per cent of HESTA members are women. In 2020, HESTA helped found 40:40 Vision, an investor initiative aiming to achieve gender balance[6] in ASX300 executive teams by 2030.
[1] 40:40 Vision: 40 per cent identifying as women; 40 per cent identifying as men; 20 per cent any gender.
[1] What Are the Benefits of Gender Diversity?
[2] Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census 2024. Page 4 of 28.
[3] 40 per cent identifying as women; 40 per cent identifying as men; 20 per cent any gender.
[4] ACSI 2024 Annual Report. Page 25.
[5] ACSI 2023 Annual Report. Page 1.
Ends.