The proportion of women on the capital side of the supervisory boards (as opposed to employee representatives) of DAX companies has risen to an all time high. In contrast, international appointments have stagnated, a survey by executive search company Heidrick & Struggles has shown. The firm has been analysing elections for supervisory boards and the proposals made at annual general meetings for over a decade.

This year, 15 women have left supervisory boards, while 22 have joined. This increases their share from 37.3% in the previous year to 39.5%. Nicolas von Rosty, Head of Germany at Heidrick & Struggles, expects this upward trend to continue in the coming years. „The windmills have been grinding slowly but efficiently on the gender issue in recent years,“ he said.

Three years ago, the proportion of women was 33.5%. There were 30 companies in the DAX back then. Since September 2021, there have been 40. The latest analysis includes 39 companies, and of the 337 supervisory board members on the capital side, 133 are women. Qiagen is not included. The biotechnology and diagnostics company published the agenda for its Annual General Meeting with the election proposals for the Supervisory Board after the cut-off date for the analysis. Qiagen is proposing all ten members for re-election, including four women. The quota of 40% corresponds to the DAX average.

There is now gender parity at eleven companies. This is the largest number to date. For the first time, women are now sometimes even in the majority – on the supervisory boards of Siemens Energy and Vonovia. They make up six of the ten members there.

In contrast, there is no movement in the international composition. Von Rosty is critical about this stagnation. „Although it would be useful for some of the companies, no focused efforts to increase the degree of internationalisation of the boards are discernible,“ he said. There are no visible projects. The exception is the supervisory board of crisis-ridden Bayer AG, to which three US citizens were newly elected. Among them is the shareholder activist Jeffrey Ubben.

A total of nine new recruits with a non-German passport are offset by ten departures this season. Their total number has therefore fallen to 136, their share to 40.3%. Few foreigners – only one person each – are on the boards of Commerzbank, Telekom, Hannover Re, MTU and Sartorius. Fresenius and Heidelberg Materials are conspicuous by their absence of foreigners.

On the other hand, Heidrick & Struggles points to companies with very international boards. In the case of Airbus (nine out of twelve), this is of course primarily due to the international nature of the company and, as in the case of Volkswagen (seven out of ten), to the shareholder structure. Five VW supervisory board members are Austrian, two are Qatari. Daimler Truck is also striking. Eight of the ten supervisory board members for the capital side are from abroad.

Following the departure of Bernd Pischetsrieder (76) as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz and Hasso Plattner (80, SAP), the chairmen of six companies are still older than 70: Reinhard Pöllath (Beiersdorf), Wolfgang Reitzle (Continental), Richard Pott (Covestro), Wolfgang Porsche (Porsche AG and Automobil Holding SE) and Hans Dieter Pötsch (Volkswagen). „Without denying the qualifications of individuals, too many DAX companies are led by supervisory board chairmen well over 70 years of age," said von Rosty. Most of them are from the owner family, or act on behalf of the family.