Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 5, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 15 More female executives lead our companies While women account for 47% of the U.S. workforce, they comprise 28% of executive leadership teams of the S&P 100 companies. Despite the disparity, a report last year from S&P Global Market Intelligence said women will make up half of C-suites by 2030. When polled online, more than nine out of 10 WBJ readers said their executive teams either have the same number or more women than this time last year. Compared to this time last year, do you have more or fewer women in your company's executive team? The same 63% Fewer 7% More 30% W O M E N I N L E A D E R S H I P F O C U S Central Mass. public company executives, by industry Industry Male executives Female executives % male Manufacturing 20 3 87% Retail 8 2 80% Insurance 5 0 100% Energy 5 2 71% Biomedical/medical technology 16 3 84% TOTAL 54 10 84% Notes: The executives included in this chart are the named executive officers of public companies headquartered in Central Massachusetts traded on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange. Allurion Technologies is not included since it has been listed on the NYSE for less than a year and comprehensive data on its executives isn't available. Source: U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Central Mass. large public company executives, by gender Total named executive No. of Company Exchange officers women Female NEOs (if any) Ameresco, Framingham NYSE 5 2 Nicole Bulgarino, executive vice president Britta MacIntosh*, senior vice president American Superconductor, Ayer Nasdaq 2 0 Aspen Aerogels, Northborough NYSE 5 0 Boston Scientific, Marlborough NYSE 5 0 BJ's Wholesale Club, Marlborough NYSE 5 1 Laura Felice, CFO Cognex, Natick Nasdaq 5 1 Sheila DiPalma, chief culture officer The Hanover Insurance Group, Worcester NYSE 5 0 Insulet, Acton Nasdaq 4 0 Hologic, Marlborough Nasdaq 5 1 Karleen Oberton, CFO IPG Photonics, Marlborough Nasdaq 5 0 The L.S. Starrett Co., Athol NYSE 3 0 Lifeward, Marlborough Nasdaq 5 2 Jeannine Lynch, vice president Miri Pariente, vice president TJX, Framingham NYSE 5 1 Carol Meyrowitz, executive chair Waters Corp., Milford NYSE 5 2 Jianqing Bennett, senior vice president Keeley Aleman, general counsel TOTAL 64 10 *Britta MacIntosh resigned from Ameresco effective Dec. 31, 2023. Notes: The executives included in this chart are the named executive officers of public companies headquartered in Central Massachusetts and traded on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange. List includes CEOs, CFOs, and the three other most highly compensated executive officers at each company (if applicable). Allurion Technologies is not included since it has been listed on the NYSE for less than a year and comprehensive data on its executives isn't available. Of the six executives listed on Allurion's website, two are women: Joyce Johnson, senior vice president; and Emily Pullen, vice president. Only Insulet responded to requests for comment. Source: 2023 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR filings education, and other qualifications make the ideal female candidate as impossible to find as a violet-hued rodent. e Boston Club's December report points out some sustained progress has been made in gender parity. All companies featured in the report had at least one woman director or one woman executive officer – the third year in a row that was the case. Yet, a number of other metrics included in the report remain relatively stagnant. Of the companies surveyed, 39 had no women among their top paid executives, a slight improvement from 2022 when the number was 40 companies. Trending in the opposite direction, seven companies had an executive suite at least 50% female, down from 10 in 2022. Decades to parity Gender parity on corporate boards in the U.S. will not be achieved until 2044, according to the 2023 Gen- der Diversity Index report conducted by 50/50 Women on Boards, a California nonprofit. Citing that finding, e Boston Club's report pulled no punches when describing the sluggish rate of improvement. "ere is no plausible reason for it to take two more decades for census companies – or any publicly traded companies, for that matter – to achieve gender parity and a more representative share of people from underrepresented minorities in the C-Suite and in the boardroom," the report's conclusion reads. A broader report of companies included in the Russell 3000 Index published in August by S&P Global Market Intelligence in New York had slightly more optimistic findings, determining companies who are part of that index are on track to reach gender parity in senior leadership sometime between 2030 and 2037. Yet, even that report found 7% of current North American CEOs whose companies are included in the Russell 3000 are women, sug- gesting the glass ceiling around the top leadership position remains the thickest. As you go up the corporate pyramid, the amount of females you find shrinks, said Jean Beaupre, dean of the School of Business and lead researcher for the Susan West Engelkemeyer Institute for Women's Leadership at Nichols College in Dudley. "We need to examine what bias is in that hiring pro- cess," Beaupre said. "Obviously for decades, men have traditionally dominated those roles, so there's a sense of familiarity in what a CEO looks and sounds like." On top of bias, a lack of diversity in who hires CEOs Jean Beaupre, business dean at Nichols College Continued on next page

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