Few Asians Hold Board Seats In Fortune 500

WASHINGTON – Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP) unveils the findings of its newest leadership series report measuring Asian and Pacific Islander (API) inclusion on Fortune 500 boards.

“A minuscule 2.08 percent of the total 5,520 board seats in the Fortune 500 are held by Asian and Pacific Islanders, said J.D. Hokoyama, LEAP’s President and CEO. “Even more disappointing is the fact that only 98 of these companies have API inclusion on their boards.”

Key Findings

In 2010, 96 Asian and Pacific Islanders held 115 board seats at 98 Fortune 500 companies. In contrast, APIs constitute 5.6% of the U.S. total population and its buying power is expected to grow 42 percent from $544 billion in 2010 to $775 billion in 2015, according to a 2010 report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ There are 96 APIs holding 115 board seats at 98 Fortune 500 companies.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ The 115 board seats represent 2.08% of the total 5,520 board seats in the Fortune 500.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ Fifteen (15.62%) out of the 96 API directors are women.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ Ten API directors serve as chair, president and/or (co) chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ The ethnic breakdown of these API directors is as follows: Chinese (37), Asian Indian (34), Japanese (14), Pakistani (3), Vietnamese (3), Korean (2), Filipino (1), Singaporean (1) and Sri Lankan (1).

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ Fifteen API board members sit on more than one Fortune 500 board of which 4 directors sit on 3 Fortune 500 boards holding 12 seats: Victor J. Dzau, Rajat K. Gupta, Andrea Jung and Arun Sarin.

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ Thirteen Fortune 500 companies have more than one API director on their boards: Goldman Sachs Group (2), Best Buy (2), PepsiCo (2), Safeway (2), Cisco Systems (2), Staples (2), Avon Products (2), Synnex (3), Yahoo (2), AECOM Technology (3), SunGard Data Systems (2), Mattel (2) and MasterCard (4).

Ã¯Æ’Ëœ MasterCard has 4 APIs on its board of directors, more than any other company in the Fortune 500.

About LEAP:

Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP) is a national organization founded in 1982 with a mission to achieve full participation and equality for Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) through leadership, empowerment and policy. With original programs in leadership training, public policy research and community education, LEAP raises the impact and visibility of APIs in all sectors. LEAP is headquartered in Los Angeles and has an office in Washington, DC. Under its leadership research initiative, LEAP is producing a series of research reports to evaluate and measure API representation at the highest leadership levels in corporations, foundations, nonprofits and higher education.