Lord Davies’ report ‘Women on Boards’ was published in 2011 and we are approaching the end point of its four year target to achieve 25% of women on executive boards by 2015. Despite not being quite on track to meet this target, we are pleased to have seen a great deal of progress over the past few years in UK plc, especially in the FTSE 100.

Diverse boards are more likely to be effective boards, better able to understand their customers and stakeholders and to benefit from fresh perspectives, new ideas, vigorous challenges and broad experience. This in turn leads to better decision making.

However, it’s not all good news. Together with other investors, we sent a letter to Antofagasta plc in Q4 2013 requesting a meeting with the company given the lack of progress on gender diversity. At the time there were no women on the board of this mining company. We were delighted to see best online casino the announcement made by the company on 28th March 2014 that Ms Vivianne Blanlot was appointed a Non-Executive Director on 27 March 2014. Ms Blanlot is an economist with extensive experience across the energy, mining, water and environmental sectors.