New drive to open boardrooms of Britain to women

Two of Britain's leading businesspeople were named Sunday to head an independent review into seeing more women executives in the boardrooms of big companies.

Sir Philip Hampton, chair of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, has been appointed chair of the review body.

The deputy chair will be Dame Helen Alexander, chair of media company UBM, and also a non-executive director of the British arm of Chinese technology giant Huawei. She also serves on the board the Rolls Royce Group.

The new government review body has been tasked of getting more women appointed to executive roles in FTSE 350 companies.

It will continue the work of a voluntary business led initiative which has seen female representation on boards in the FTSE 100 rise from 12.5 percent to beyond the target of 25 percent.

The government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said Sunday the next phase of the review will focus on building the pipeline for female executives and emerging non-executive directors.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The employment rate for women has never been higher and there are now more women on FTSE boards than ever before. But we need to go further, particularly when it comes to paving the way to the executive level."

Women and Equalities Minister Nicky Morgan said: "Having more women on FTSE boards means these women can act as powerful role models for the next generation of girls."

The Department for Business said both Sir Philip and Dame Helen were chosen to lead the independent review because they both have a good track record of women on boards of directors at the firms where they have worked. Endit