6 Trends on ASX Company Boards That Should Raise Investor Eyebrows

Last week, Ownership Matters released a major report on ASX Company Boards. The report, studied ASX 300 entities (excluding ‘stapled securities’ that meant they were not formally incorporated companies and hence did not have AGMs) and made many fascinating insights.

We thought we’d delve into some other trends investors may have missed but should at the very least be aware of and consider whether or not it is the case at their company.

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6 Trends on ASX Company Boards That Investors Should Know

1. The number women of ASX company boards is growing (slowly)

The insights everyone looks to is the general representation of women and indeed this was mentioned. 36.6% of ASX 300 companies have female directors (775 of 2116 board seats) while the ASX 100 has 39.8%. Only 3 ASX 300 companies have all male boards. The AFR declared that the NED (Non-executive Director) cohort,’ is still too male, pale and stale’. We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusion on that. Only 14.2% of companies have females in the chair seat.

Nonetheless, there has been progress. Just 4 years ago, the number of female directors was just 24% in the ASX 300. And there are six female-majority boards in the ASX 100 which were CSL, GPT Group, Macquarie, NAB, Telstra and Woolworths (there were 9 but the other 3 have become equally weighted or majority male and these were BOQ, Mineral Resources and Iluka). CSL and Woolworths have the most female directors with 6 (Rio Tinto and NAB had 6 too but it declined to 5). There are more female-majority boards in the ASX 200 and ASX 300.

2. Some purportedly ‘Independent’ Directors are only so-called

94.9% NED directors at ASX 100 are independent – a figure up from 93.8% a year prior. It was 82.8% in the ASX 200 and 77.2% in the ASX 300. But it was observed that in 2024 what in some ASX 300 cohorts NEDs were independent despite having options in the company – specifically there were 44. And there was a noteable increase in 2024 (although a specific figure was not given).

3. Some directors are on multiple boards

Obviously. But the record holder is Robert Millner, who sat on five ASX 300 boards as of the time of publication, although that figure will reduce to four given the Soul Pattinson-Brickworks merger. John Mullen is the chair of three ASX 100 companies (one of which is Qantas (ASX:QAN)). And did you know that women are more likely to hold multiple roles than their male counterparts – of 12 NEDs who hold four ASX 300 board roles, ten are women.

4. A majority hold skin in the game, but…

…how much should they have? 60% of ASX 100 directors hold in excess of one year’s board fees, 51.4% in the ASX 200 and 48.3% in the ASX 300. Only 27.6% of ASX 100 directors have more than 2 years of fees. While the report didn’t consider this, we would be interested to see how many paid their own money for it or were just ‘granted’ shares – even if shareholders formally approved it.

5. It’s a long way to the top…but a shorter stint there

Although boards don’t have to disclose the age of all members as they do in America – the report captured data spanning 64% of seats and found the average age of ASX 100 directors is 63.3 years and 65 for males only. This is 6.3 years older than the average CEO age. Of course the 60-69 cohort is the largest except female directors in the smallest ASX 300 cohort where 50-59s were marginally higher. No females were over 80 but 6 males were. The average tenure is 5.5 years with male tenure 6.3 years and female tenure averaging 4.4 years.

6. The average board is getting bigger

The average ASX 300 board has 6 members, a figure that is 7 amongst ASX 200 companies and 9 amongst ASX 100 companies. And of course, some were even higher. The largest boards in the ASX 100 were Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) with 14 members followed by Newmont (ASX:NEM) with 13. The smallest was Iluka (ASX:ILU), which had 5 at the time of its last AGM but now has 6.

In the ASX 200 the biggest was Alcoa with 12 members, followed by TPG with 10, whilst Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) was the smallest with 4. In the ASX 300, the largest was MA Financial (ASX:MA,F) which has 10 and the smallest were a handful of stocks with 4 directors at the time of their last AG,Ms but most either increased their boards or were taken over since then (one being Spartan Resources).