On February 11th, I participated as a panellist for the Strategic Capability Network’s ‘New OSC Board Diversity Policy: A Strategic Opportunity for Board-Building’ event. My topic: How can we be agents of change in making diversity a strategic opportunity? With the new OSC rules surrounding board diversity there will be many changes ahead in how corporate boards recruit their new board members. As a corporate director, I believe that this is an opportunity to build stronger boards.

Leadership Development

A crucial step in making board diversity a strategic opportunity is for HR executives to identify leaders and engage in leadership development. This can be done through supporting executives to complete governance educational programs such as the ICD Director’s Education Program or the Directors College. Board development programs help executives learn how to be more effective in working with their boards. The opportunity for executives to serve on a board helps them round out their skills by having a Board frame of reference, which also helps them in their presentations to the Board.

HR executives should take the time to get to know their current Board members —if they serve on other Boards, perhaps there may be potential board opportunities for members of their executive team.

Should HR executives play a role in helping their Governance Committee decide on board composition issues?

HR executives can help the Board develop their Board skills matrix. They can work with the Chair of the Governance Committee or the Corporate Secretary to help recruit potential Board members from inside and outside of the company. They can keep an evergreen list of potential Board members, lead the conversation on age diversity and help put age limit policy in place.

I am an Agent of Change.

As a sitting Corporate Director, I have been approached quite often by other women asking me how I got on Boards. So over time, I would speak about it on panels, or have follow-up telephone calls, coffee, or lunch meetings. Then, last May I engaged a digital branding firm to work with me on my online branding, and I started developing my thought leadership around women on boards and governance. Shortly after that, my call to action came and I joined forces with my co-founder, Susan Varty, to launch Women Get On Board—a member based forum to connect and promote women to corporate boards through roundtable events and promoting on-line their expertise. Last week we had our first roundtable event, Be Visible, speak up and Stand out, with guest speaker Beverly Topping. If you are interested in learning more about Women Get On Board, you can go to, womengetonboard.ca or email us at connect (at) womengetonboard (dot) ca.

So let’s all step up today and collectively be Agents of Change. We can make a difference in making diversity a strategic opportunity for board-building.