Which are the 44 NYSE-listed companies that disclosed having an LGBTQ+ Board Member?

Sorry, M. Blum, the Board Diversity disclosure train seems to have left the station

In 2022/2023, at least* 1.8% of NYSE companies voluntarily disclosed in their proxies whether they had LGBTQ+ Board Members. This represents 49 individual Board Members (a comprehensive nominative list of companies and LGBTQ+ Directors is included at the end of this post). It signifies that companies and investors are developing an appetite for LGBTQ+ Board Diversity.

Jay Blum, the infamous Don Quixote of Board Diversity

Conservative legal strategist Jay Blum is known for his activism against affirmative action based on race and ethnicity. This year, he became a household name when the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard and the University of North Carolina in a case that ended race-based affirmative action policies in American college admissions.

Less known is that Blum also leads the fight against Board Diversity efforts in the U.S. (see my August 2022 article, Who is Edward Jay Blum?)  through Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment (AFBR), a shell organization opposed to diversity requirements on corporate boards. AFBR was the plaintiff who effectively led to the repeal of California’s AB979. However, it just suffered a court defeat in its fight against the NASDAQ disclosure rule, which Blum is appealing (see here).

Blum’s strategy is to throw everything at the wall to protect what he perceives as the great “American meritocracy” and see what sticks. Of course, he’d like to go to the Supreme Court with the NASDAQ case – that would be his ninth appearance there. Yet, in my humble opinion, AFBR’s case does not have teeth as the NASDAQ rule is not about quotas but about providing shareholders with crucial information about their investments: who sits on the Board?

Blum’s recent defeat should embolden Chairman Gensler (and Boards)

Blum’s defeat in challenging the SEC on the NASDAQ rule opened the way for Chairman Gensler to expand the disclosure mandate to every publicly listed company in America. Something we have been asking him to do in a March 2023 letter. Indeed, NASDAQ has proved it is feasible to ask LGBTQ+ Board Members to self-identify, that Board members would self-identify when given the opportunity, and that both companies and investors support these disclosures (see our recent research on NASDAQ disclosures: What NASDAQ Disclosures Reveal About LGBTQ+ Representation and Overall Diversity in the Boardroom).

Another crucial aspect is that no company has been sued for providing this information.

The train has left the station on Board diversity disclosures

However, in the unlikely case that AFBR’s case would make it to SCOTUS and that a politicized Supreme Court ruled in Blum’s favor, it might have little effect on disclosures as companies and investors have developed an appetite for it. Once AB979 was repealed in California, we saw that companies did not revert to the situation before the law became effective.

Similarly, some publicly listed companies not on the NASDAQ have started disclosing these figures voluntarily. We counted 45 NYSE companies with such disclosures in their proxy. Concretely, the train has left the station even if the rule were to be repealed. 

Which are the 44  NYSE-listed companies disclosing their LGBTQ+ Board Members?

You might know about Grindr (6 LGBTQ+ Directors) and Macy’s (2 LGBTQ+ Directors). Still, at least another 42 companies have disclosed having an LGBTQ+ Board member in 2022/2023 (one disclosed NOT having an LGBTQ+ Board Member, ServiceNow, Inc).

In doing so, they used a wide variety of formats. For example, Amphenol Corporation (Rita Lane), Curtiss Wright, and N-Able (have a footnote: “one [of our directors] identifies as LGBTQ+,” “1 LGBTQ community member”, “Of our seven directors […] one identifies as LGBTQ+”. Teradata (Todd McElhatton), CMS Energy (Myrna Soto), Altria (Connelly, Hacinto), United Natural Foods (Denise Clark) used a nominative matrix (see below), Macy’s used its version of a non-nominative matrix. In contrast, PVH (George Cheeks), Clearwater Analytics Holdings (Cary Davis), and DoubleVerify (Laura Desmond) used the NASDAQ matrix model.

As a side note, AMC Theatres (Denise Clark) had the most fascinating disclosure with a nominative category titled “Other Disclosed Characteristics,” which, besides LGBTQ+, included Jewish, Episcopalian, and Dual UK Nationality (see here).

In six companies, we could not identify the LGBTQ+ Board members: Sally Beauty, OutFront Media, Inspire Medical Systems, Curtiss-Wright, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, and N-Able (let us know if you know).

Many prominent NYSE companies that have LGBTQ+ Board members, such as Nike (Tim Cook), Goldman Sachs (Michele Burns), or L3Harris (Rita Lane) (see our Fortune 500 list here), have not yet disclosed this information.

Looking ahead: expanding these disclosures

For the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, LGBTQ+ Board diversity disclosures and reporting have been a game-changer. They provided critical data to monitor progress on LGBTQ+ Board Diversity in the NASDAQ grouping. This enhances transparency and incentivizes companies to instigate significant changes in diversity, nomination procedures, and overall board management. Having such disclosures extended is one of our goals.

It might be unpleasant for M. Blum to hear, but the Board Diversity disclosure train has left the station.

An exhaustive list of the companies and names of LGBTQ+ Board members is available below:

*There may be some companies we did not capture; please let us know if you see an omission.