Program aims for greater ethnic diversity on boards

Good to see expansion of this program to improve diversity of public institution boards beyond Toronto:

This week Ms. Omidvar announced the national launch of a program aimed to break down the barriers of the old-boy network by identifying, training and selecting qualified board candidates who are also either immigrants or members of a visible minority group.

“Public institutions that are created to serve the public good make better decisions for their clients and customers if the boards are diverse,” Ms. Omidvar said. “We are going to close the gap between those who live in these cities and those who serve on these boards.”

The program is called DiverseCity onBoard, and it will expand from Toronto, where it has placed more than 700 candidates on boards over the past several years, to Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Hamilton and London. The program works by matching candidates with vacancies. If a board has an opening, the program looks to connect it with a suitable match, someone with the training and expertise they require who might never have come to their attention otherwise.

“When we did our research in Toronto we asked organizations, ‘Why is it that your board still looks like old Canada?’ They said, ‘We agree completely, we want to be more reflective of the community, but we don’t have the networks,’” Ms. Omidvar said. “By putting real-life candidates in front of them, we try to dispel that myth that, ‘Oh, we don’t know any body.’”

Program aims for greater ethnic diversity on boards – The Globe and Mail.