When Bonnie Y Chan, the Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), looked at the data on board gender diversity at companies listed on the HKEX, she and her team didn’t like it one bit.
That prompted the HKEX to ban all single-gender boards in 2022, a rule that companies listed or looking to be listed on the HKEX had until the end of 2024 to comply. Although 85 companies – accounting for 3% of the exchange’s 2,650 listed companies – failed to comply with the rule as of January 2025, the endeavor has yielded positive results: compared to just 16.1% in 2022, the percentage of female directors at HKEX-listed companies has risen to 20.4% in 2025. By reducing the number of companies with single-gender boards from 800 to 400, the HKEX’s effort has created 400 new positions for female directors.
As acknowledged by Bonnie Y Chan, the gradual removal of the glass ceiling allows the emergence of more women leaders, especially in the financial services industry. This could shorten the time it takes to close the global economic gender gap, which currently stands at 152 years, not least by imbuing in girls and young women the message that they, too, can be in leadership positions across industries.
FSI Equipping Goldman Sachs Women Executives with Boardroom Readiness
At Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI), our widely acclaimed Board Director Training Program has trained and nurtured numerous women executives who are aspiring or current board members at multinational firms and social impact organizations.
On 15 February, we hosted a “Boardroom Readiness” training workshop for 25 women executives of Goldman Sachs, our long-time corporate partner for our Impact Jam initiative. With career lengths spanning between five years to more than 15 years, the participants joined the session with little or no prior knowledge of board governance.
The women executives joined the workshop for a variety of reasons ranging from enhancing their leadership skills to board directorship being a career goal, and interest in joining a nonprofit board.
An “Excellent” Workshop with Plenty of Takeaways
The workshop, conducted by David Bishop, FSI Co-founder and Associate Professor of Teaching at The University of Hong Kong, concluded with positive feedback from the participants, the majority of whom rated the training as “excellent”.
“A huge takeaway for me was realizing that being a board director is actually very accessible and I am more than capable of being effective in this role,” said one participant. “It helped me dispel a lot of the assumptions I had about what a director should be! The confidence gained from this program is an awesome byproduct. Finally, the network and connections we made are so invaluable. I’ll definitely reach out to David and the FSI team soon to explore opportunities to support great organizations in Hong Kong!”
Another participant commented: “The case studies are very thought-provoking and truly engage us for deeper reflections on our roles and broader stakeholders’ roles in impacting changes.”
“The training was a realistic look at board directorships for non-profits in Hong Kong,” said another participant. “Charities with limited accountability can benefit greatly from more rigorous processes, and a good board director can probably drive change, albeit slowly.”
Train, Develop, and Retain Your Talents to Achieve ESG Goals
Building effective leaders is more urgent now than ever before. Regardless of our roles and industries and sectors, it is our responsibility to gain an in-depth understanding of the polycrisis we face today, determine where systems change is needed, collaborate with others to design and implement effective solutions, and lead organizations through constant change to success.
Work with FSI to train, develop, and retain your talents so that you can increase your organization’s productivity and resilience, nurture meaningful engagements with your employees, grow independent employees capable of developing new mindsets, and cultivate the next generation of leaders.
Get in touch with us at classes@shared-impact.com to learn more about our corporate training programs, how our programs can help your organization build or reinforce a purpose-driven culture, and how we can customize our offerings to suit your respective needs and goals.
To facilitate knowledge transfer, we also have a nonprofit board placement program to place corporate professionals in board director roles at value-aligned nonprofits. Email our Community Connections team at communityconnections@shared-impact.com to learn more.
