Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff, the venerable parent company of Simmons Bank, has 11 directors. All 11 are male.
Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, the parent company of Centennial Bank, has 12 directors. All male.
The chairmen of both publicly traded banks recognize that this is not ideal and have plans to add women to their boards.
Sharon Gaber, the former provost of the University of Arkansas, resigned from Simmons’ board when she was hired as president of the University of Toledo in Ohio in early 2015. Since then, according to Chairman and CEO George Makris Jr., Simmons has identified an ideal woman with a strong financial background to join the board. But she isn’t immediately available, so diversifying the board will have to wait.
Similarly, John Allison, chairman of Home BancShares, says his company has picked an ideal woman for its board — his sister-in-law, Donna Townsell, who has been credited with dramatically improving Centennial’s efficiency ratios. But he doesn’t plan to place her on the board until he retires in five years or longer.
With all due respect to Makris, Allison and the 21 other men on their boards of directors, you are thinking about this all wrong. Bringing gender diversity to your board is not like marriage, in which you must find your one and only true love. Identifying one perfect woman does not preclude identifying other women who are plenty qualified. If there are 23 men who are ideally suited to your boards, surely there is more than one woman who would be equally valuable.
Bank of the Ozarks — recognized year after year as one of the best-run banks in the country — has managed to find three women directors at the same time. Believe us on this: Adding more women to your boards will not be unfaithful to the women who are at the top of your list. In fact, more women will make their voices even more meaningful.