Tuesday September 11 - Helsinki

Technopolis sponsors over 50 business breakfasts each year as a means to bring together entrepreneurs, leaders and experts in a networking event.  CEO Keith Silverang began the concept and often supports by participating in the dialog, as he did today.

I had the opportunity to be the featured speaker to discuss the Eisenhower Fellowship and my leadership experiences.   Today’s session offered joint dialog with approximately 15 leaders on the topic of diversity.  This venue allowed me the opportunity to share my fellowship experiences to date and to learn more about diversity in Finland. 

One hot topic of discussion was quotas for board leadership.  EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding will propose decisive legislative action on gender quotas for corporate boards next month, after calls to take voluntary steps to increase women on boards to 40% by 2020 has failed to deliver tangible results.  Several countries in the Nordic region have already implemented a quota system (Norway for example), but to date, Finland has opposed.  The dialog provided pros and cons on the issue. 

Much of the discussion centered on the need to change mid-level and upper level mgmt positions to ensure there is a good pipeline of qualified leaders to fill the board. 

One question for further research is whether there is a link between more diverse boards and the age of the board members.  As a new generation moves into leadership is the composition becoming more diverse?

Next stop:  Heading to Oulu in northern Finland.