Through collaboration, advocacy, action, and accountability, we mobilize thousands of diverse professional women and men, business organizations, public and private companies to accelerate change. The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) is an unprecedented alliance 70+ women’s business organizations and hundreds of business leaders building a movement to achieve equal position, pay, and power for all women in business. About Women Business Collaborative (WBC) Serving more than 1 million users from over 25,000 customers around the world, we empower transformational leaders with technology, insights, and confidence to drive greater impact and lead with purpose. About Diligentĭiligent is the global leader in modern governance, providing SaaS solutions across governance, risk, compliance and ESG. The Companies of Purpose Initiative builds on the existing Diligent and WBC partnership which was created under the Diligent Modern Leadership initiative to increase diverse representation at the executive and board levels of global business. “We’re proud to partner with WBC to bring this initiative to life and shed light on the gender equity gap in business and its impact on performance.” "When it comes to building diverse board and executive teams, giving leaders visibility into best practices from other organizations is key to shifting intention into action,” said Lisa Edwards, President and COO of Diligent and board director at Colgate-Palmolive. The goal is to ensure that corporate purpose is directly linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion in business leadership.
The initiative also will examine the state of DEI and ESG reporting in public companies across the Fortune, S&P and Russell indexes.
2021 was a watershed year for board diversity with women holding 27% of all board seats, up from 24% in 2020, the largest one-year increase among the Russell 3000 to date. The study details the status of women on public and private boards. One area of focus will be the composition of boardrooms across industries documented in the WBC ongoing survey Women Leading Boards. In addition to Diligent, more than 28 public and private companies of purpose including 14 led by women (50%) have joined the initiative: ACLI (association), Akamai, CBRE, CISCO Systems, Diversified Search Group, General Motors, IBM, Knock, Kolar, Modere, New York Life, Omega World Travel, Pinnacle Global Network, Raytheon Technologies, Sanofi, Signet, SNT BioTech, Sodexo, Storyville Gardens, Sunny Days, Syndio, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Verizon, Wilmington/M&T Bank Corporation, and Zoetis. By identifying and compiling a list of best practices in this area, we will empower organizations to develop and execute strategic and innovative ideas with tangible and practical tools and programs that will improve position, pay, and power for women and women of color in business. “Great leaders are stepping forward to put diversity and accountability at the heart of business - building more transparent organizations. “We’re proud to launch the Companies of Purpose Initiative with Diligent,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of the WBC.
It will share and scale ways to influence action and change in the “social” aspects of ESG including programs related to staffing, brand, and community. The Companies of Purpose Initiative will identify best practices of purpose-driven leadership to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in position, pay and power. Washington, DC JWomen Business Collaborative (WBC), and lead sponsor Diligent, today announce a new strategic initiative focused on closing the gender equity gap in business. 25+ Companies Have Joined the Initiative to Close Gender Equality Gap in Business