Connecticut’s biggest public pension fund and eight other large U.S. retirement funds are pressing securities regulators to push for more gender, race and ethnic diversity on corporate boards.
State Treasurer Denise Nappier released Monday a joint letter that she and state and municipal pension overseers in New York and New York City, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington state signed and sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The funds’ collectively have more than $1.12 trillion in assets; Connecticut’s alone is $30 billion in assets.
In the letter, the funds urged the SEC to adopt a rule requiring corporate disclosure of board nominees’ gender, race, and ethnic diversity, as well as their mix of skills, experiences and attributes.
“Board diversity is not merely a numbers game,” Nappier said in a statement. “The crux of a company’s philosophy should indicate that it values diversity — at the board level and throughout the workplace — as a net plus financially for its sustainable health.”
Such pressure apparently can work.
Recently, Connecticut’s pension fund, for which Nappier is principal fiduciary, withdrew a shareholder resolution it had filed at apparel-retailer Urban Outfitters asking the company to consider women and minority candidates for board seats after the retailer appointed an independent female director to its board, Nappier said.
