| dc.description.abstract | Sabanci University’s Corporate Governance Forum (CGFT), in strategic partnership with Egon Zehnder
International (EZI) Turkey, initiated the “Independent Woman Directors (IWD)” project in 2012. The Forum
was motivated by the CMBT’s (Capital Markets Board of Turkey) ruling that came to force in January 2012 and
required 1/3 of the board members to be independent. Although the same ruling recommended inclusion of at
least one female director, the result was to dilute women’s representation of boards from 12.5% to 11.5%, since
companies increased their board size and predominantly appointed men as independent directors to comply
with the ruling.
IWD was a response to this unintended consequence. It aims to help companies to consider female candidates
when nominating independent directors. To this end, a database of qualified women is created. Each candidate
is evaluated against the criteria established by the Forum and EZI Turkey. By the end of 2017 IWD database has
300 board-qualified women. The women who are qualified by IWD project are automatically included in the
GBRW database without going through a further independent assessment process.1
In 2013, after considering the draft proposed by IWD, CMBT revised its recommendation. Accordingly, the new
clause 4.3.9 of the CMBT’s current Corporate Governance Principles requires listed companies set a minimum
25% target rate for female board members, together with a target date and a policy that will make it possible to
reach these targets. The board is expected to evaluate and report the progress made in reaching the target on an
annual basis. The ruling is based on the “Comply or Explain” approach; those companies who do not set a target
must explain why they don’t in their mandatory annual Corporate Governance Compliance Reports.
Since 2012, IWD Project helped a number of companies and investors, including IFC, to find suitable female
candidates to nominate to boards. The Project also includes the piloting of a shareholder initiative that makes
use of mandatory electronic general assemblies in Turkey to ask questions to the boards about their gender
diversity targets.
Within the scope of the IWD project, researchers collect data on boards, analyze trends, conduct research and
report. Researchers use the data and analysis to calculate the Women Empowered Boards Index developed by a
team of scholars at Sabancı University. The boards that score highest are awarded. | en_US |
