The future is female? Hong Kong companies did not get memo with third still having all-male board members
- Hong Kong stock exchange requires at least one woman on board of all listed companies by 2024
- More than half of professionals polled pessimistic about board diversity mandate achieving its goals
Hong Kong businesswoman Lily Cheng Ka-lai recalls attending her first board meeting as an independent non-executive director of a travel company in Europe in 2016 and feeling intimidated but determined to speak up.
“For a lot of women with my profile and age, they never thought this path was possible,” the 44-year-old Cheng told the Post at the Women of Influence awards organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) on Tuesday. “It always seemed like you had to be in your 60s or 70s as a retired CEO or accounting firm partner [to sit on a board of directors].”
Cheng, who began her career in the technology and internet sector, is now a member of six boards, three of which were listed companies in the city, including Swire Properties.
But about a third of the city’s listed companies still have only men on their boards, despite the Hong Kong stock exchange requiring at least one female representative in all of its listed companies by the end of 2024.
About 54 per cent of nearly 200 professionals polled by AmCham were pessimistic about whether the mandate would achieve what the exchange hoped.
