Dive Brief:

• Ernst & Young’s Talent at the Table: Index of women in power and utilities concluded that Duke Energy Corp offers more opportunity to women than any other of the industry’s biggest 100 companies worldwide.
• The report found the utility and power industry offers more gender diversity than infrastructure industries like telecommunications, oil and gas, or mining, but less diversity than consumer services.
• The top five companies for gender diversity are Duke Energy (U.S.) – 7.04 score of 10, Sempra Energy (U.S.) – 6.40, Eskom Holdings (South Africa) – 5.75, Alpiq Holdings (Switzerland) – 5.00, and Tenaga Nasional (Malaysia) – 3.80.

Dive Insight:

Duke’s CEO is Lynn J. Good and Sempra’s CEO is Debra L. Reed. Both women are members of their companies’ boards of directors.

Of the world’s top 100 power and utility companies, women make up 4% of the board executives, 18% of non-executive directors, 15% of board members (executive and non-executive), and 12% of senior management teams.

The second five companies on the list: China Resources Power Holdings (China) – 3.28, Centrica (UK) –3.13, Hokkaido Electric Power (Japan) – 3.00, Origin Energy (Australia) –2.93, and Hydro-Quebec (Canada) – 2.81.

The top five countries for companies with women on their boards, across all industries, were Norway (40.9%), Sweden (27.0%), Finland (26.8%), France (18.3%), and the UK (17.3%).