Board Monitor Brazil 2020

Most corporate boards in the 15 countries Heidrick & Struggles study made some progress in adding new members with diverse backgrounds and skills. In Brazil, for example, 60% of directors joined the board of a company in a different industry than the one they work in day-to-day. Many boards around the world also continued to add a number of more traditional directors. This includes people with prior board experience—78% of appointments in Brazil, higher than the United States, Spain, or Portugal—or prior experience as a CEO or CFO. Though such directors don’t as often add diversity in other areas, their experience has been particularly valued by nominating committees when companies face significant enterprise risk. Among the characteristics of new directors we have been tracking, we note a few trends among new directors globally, which are somewhat at odds with each other.