Women on boards: Searchable database shows you how many women sit on boards of TSX-listed companies

With the confirmation of Maureen Jensen as the new chair and leader from the Ontario Securities Commission, companies and investors can expect the problem of women on boards to remain the main thing on the OSC’s agenda.

Jensen was nominated recently to exchange former OSC chair Howard Wetston by Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa. At the time, Sousa singled out Jensen’s work in implementing Ontario’s new “comply or explain” disclosure regime, which aims to increase the representation of women on boards of directors as well as in executive officer positions.

In mid-November 2015, Canadian regulators released company-specific data around the representation of woman on boards and in senior management for 722 TSX-listed companies after releasing new “comply or explain” rules last year made to encourage companies to place more women on their own boards and in executive suites.

The results from the searchable database originate from that exercise.

One caveat though, the information was derived from regulatory year-end filings from the period Dec. 31, 2014 to March 31, 2015 so searching of some TSX-listed information mill missing in the list.

An OSC spokesperson said they be prepared to “complete our sample within the coming months by completing reviews of issuers with year-ends outside the period Dec. 31, 2014 to March 31, 2015.”