New board, who dis?

WORKPLACE

All of These Boards Look Exactly the Same

We're actually going to start by zooming out: Corporate boards in the U.S. have historically been dominated by white men, but...that's been changing. Moved by the growing need to better reflect the demographics of the country (and under increasing pressure from investors), companies have slowly but surely begun to diversify their boards.

Let's explore the dynamics at play.

First of all, studies show it's good for business

• Credit Suisse found a few years back that shares in global companies with a market cap greater than $10 billion performed 26% better when at least one woman sits on the board.
• Going beyond just board seats, McKinsey found that companies with workforces in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity were 35% more likely to have above-average financial returns within their industries.

Though some suggest those kind of statistical analyses may not be the "gold standard," corporate America is taking notice nonetheless. After all, in the last year...

1. California became the first state to require publicly traded companies to have at least one woman on their boards.
2. BlackRock asked companies in the Russell 1000 with fewer than two female board members to explain why.
3. State Street said from 2020 on, it will vote against all members of nominating committees at companies with no women on their boards.

But change takes

Women won a record number of independent seats on Fortune 500 boards in 2017...but at the current pace, women will not reach parity with men in new board appointments until 2025 in the U.S., according to the World Economic Forum.

• What's more, following the exit of PG&E chief Geisha Williams last week and the departure of Xerox's Ursula Burns in 2016, there are now no Latina or African American women leading Fortune 500 companies.

The ball is rolling, though. Last week, Deloitte put out new stats concluding that women held 22.5% of board positions at Fortune 500 companies in 2018, up from 20.2% in 2016. And among Fortune 100 firms, women held 25% of board seats last year, up from 23% in 2016.

Deloitte also found that board representation for African American women at Fortune 100 firms increased 44.8% from 2016 to last year, while that for Asian women increased 30.8%.

Bottom line: Recent activism and conversations about workplace equality have helped produce small but tangible change in the corporate boardroom.

TOP 10

We were feeling generous this holiday weekend, so while we usually only share our top 10 long reads...let's make it 15 today.

1. An ode to the legendary John Bogle, from one of the many investors he both mentored and inspired (Reformed Broker).
2. Sorry I forgot your birthday...I stopped checking Facebook (WSJ).
3. Could Spotify's artist compensation model obliterate music's middle class? (The Ringer).
4. Another threat to football? An evaporating insurance market (ESPN).
5. You've heard of Canadian weed company Tilray, but do you know its CEO is a billionaire who doesn't smoke pot? (Fortune).
6. Cheaper alternatives and at-home classes are coming for SoulCycle and Flywheel's boutique fitness crown (Vox).
7. What people actually say before they die (The Atlantic).
8. So the egg beat out Kylie Jenner for the most-liked Instagram in history. Who's going to cash in? (
9. The NFL has never been able to track its athletes' performance data as well as it can today. But who owns that data, and where can it be used? (Bloomberg).
10. The next big trend in self-help isn't magically tidying up or reinventing your persona, but rather learning to love what you've already got (The Guardian).
11. Nike's new self-lacing smart shoe is actually...smart (Wired).
12. Some wild photos from the 2019 Dakar Rally (The Atlantic).
13. Here are some of the overlooked movie performances that deserve some attention ahead of the Oscars (Daily Beast).
14. The art of decision making—in which we could probably all use a lesson (New Yorker).
15. The beauty industry feeds on your anxieties...now it's selling anxiety cure-alls (Quartzy).

CONVERSATION STARTER

Meet 'Sweater Guy'

A postcard is nice...but a little antiquated. And Instagrams of rock formations? The Park Service isn't down with that. Maybe on your next vacation, take a page from artist Sam Barsky. Everywhere he travels, Barsky brings a hand-knitted postcard sweater depicting the very place he's visiting.

The Baltimore native has made almost 90 of these garments and has no plans to stop. Read his story.

BREAKROOM

Stock Market Trivia
Today is one of nine holidays the New York Stock Exchange will observe in 2019. Can you name the other eight?

(Answer located at bottom of newsletter)

Breakroom Answers