News

Don't expect women to start storming the corner office.

A new study shows that the top management ranks of the largest U.S. companies -- the pool from which chief executive officers are drawn -- are remarkably devoid of women.

The study, in the November issue of the journal Academy of Management Perspectives, reveals that 48 per cent of the 942 companies analyzed have not a single female executive.

Just 7.2 per cent had more than two women in the top ranks.

Despite the rise of such prominent women as Kerrii Anderson, recently named chief executive officer of Wendy's International Inc., the statistical picture goes a long way toward explaining why the number of female CEOs at major corporations has grown at a pathetic rate in recent years. It also suggests the pace is likely to drag for years to come.

"When I started the study, I thought it can't be as bad as the press reports on how few women there are in business, and how we need more. But it was worse than I expected," Constance Helfat, a professor at Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business and co-author of the study, told Bloomberg News recently.

Industries with the highest percentage of female executives include: publishing, securities, health care, airlines, food services, soaps and cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Male bastions include semiconductors, energy and waste management.

The study, titled "The Pipeline to the Top: Women and Men in the Top Executive Ranks of U.S. Corporations," was co-authored by Dawn Harris of Loyola University Chicago and Dartmouth's Paul Wolfson.

Small-firm directors play compensation catch-up

Pay equity is alive and well -- at least in the lofty world inhabited by corporate directors.

A new study shows that directors at many smaller public companies have been playing paycheque catch-up to their big-company counterparts.

Steven Hall & Partners, an executive compensation consultancy, reports that pay for board members at the largest 500 U.S.-listed companies rose an average of 14 per cent over the past year, to $185,000 (U.S.) from $162,363.

Companies in the bottom 250 on the list, meanwhile, posted an average 19-per-cent jump as companies responded to competitive recruitment pressures.

Median total remuneration for the average board member ranges from $142,112 for directors of companies with annual revenue under $2.5-billion, to $224,414 at companies with revenue of $50-billion or higher.

Competition for board talent has become fiercer because of greater liability and public scrutiny of board affairs.

Remuneration in the study included cash retainers, stock awards and meeting fees.

Athabasca's on-line executive MBA gets an 'A'

Considering an executive MBA but can't afford the class time? At least now you don't have to resort to one of those matchbox-cover correspondence courses.

Athabasca University's on-line executive master of business administration program has once again ranked among the world's best E-MBAs by the Financial Times of London. A total of six Canadian schools made the list, but Athabasca's was the only on-line program in the world to do so, ranking 82nd out of 85 schools.

The other Canadian schools on the list: the Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario in London (24th); the Rotman school at the University of Toronto (26th); the Haskayne MBA at the universities of Alberta and Calgary (46th); the Molson school at Concordia University in Montreal (68th); and Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. (73rd).

The Financial Times rankings are based on responses from the business school and from alumni who graduated in 2003.

Among the factors weighing into the results: alumni career progression, alumni salary increases, percentage of faculty with doctorate degrees, and the quality of faculty research.

Athabasca, an Alberta university specializing in distance education, launched what it says is the world's first on-line MBA in 1994.

The program has grown to become Canada's largest executive MBA, with almost 1,000 students worldwide and an alumni population of more than 1,700.

bcrosariol@globeandmail.com