By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
With the potential elections of board members at its upcoming annual general meeting, CN will meet its goal of achieving gender parity among its independent directors one year ahead of plan, the Class I announced last week.
This year, two new directors have been nomationed to serve on CN’s board, including Denise Gray. She is president of LG Energy Solution Michigan Inc. Tech Center, and oversees the North American subsidiary of South Korean LG Energy Solution, one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery manufacturers, CN announced in a press release.
Margaret McKenzie brings to CN’s board extensive experience as a founder, chief financial officer and board member of various private companies.Gray and nominee Justin Howell, senior investment manager at BMGI, which manages the assets of Cascade Investment LLC, will be considered for election at CN’s 2021 annual general meeting on April 27. In addition, Margaret McKenzie, who was appointed to CN’s board in October 2020, will stand for election for the first time. A chartered accountant for over 35 years, McKenzie brings to CN’s board extensive experience as a founder, chief financial officer and board member of various private companies, CN officials say.
Should Gray and McKenzie be elected, CN will have met its goal of gender parity earlier than planned. The railroad’s stated goal had been to attain a board composition where at least 40% of its directors are among “designated groups” — women, Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities and persons with disabilities — by 2022. Moreover, the company has a goal in which at least 30% of its executive team members will be women by 2022.
CN’s gender parity objective is part of its environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) goals, which also include an update to board governance policies. Those changes include reducing the board’s size to 10 independent directors plus the CEO. Among the five CN directors scheduled to leave the board in April, two are women: Maureen Kempston Darkes, retired group vice president of GM Corp., and Edith Holiday, former general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Other female CN board directors are: Shauneen Bruder, retired EVP of operations at Royal Bank of Canada; Julie Godin, EVP of strategic planning and corporate development at CGI Inc.; and Laura Stein, EVP and general counsel of legal affairs at Mondelez International.
CN is part of a broader trend among publicly traded companies in Canada that are striving to reach gender parity on their boards. According to KPMG’s 2020 report, Are We Making a Difference?, women made up more than one-third of all new appointments to boards of Canada’s 100 largest publicly traded companies over the past six years.
When Isabelle Courville took over as chair of CP’s board in 2019, she became the first woman to hold the position, as well as the first woman to chair a Class I.Both CN and Canadian Pacific, Canada’s other Class I, have publicly stated goals to achieve diversity on their boards and in executive leadership. Last year both were cited in the 30% Club/Catalyst annual report, Women in Leadership at S&P/TSX Companies, as “achievers” on the list of index companies with 30% or more women on their boards.
Both railroads’ board chairs — CN’s Robert Pace and CP’s Isabelle Courville — also are members of the 30% Club, a group of chairs and CEOs who’ve committed to achieving better gender balance at senior levels and across their organizations. The 30% Club’s mission is to reach at least 30% representation of all women on all boards and c-suites globally.
When Courville took over as chair of CP’s board on May 7, 2019, she became the first woman to hold the position, as well as the first woman to chair a Class I. An engineer and lawyer, she was active for over 25 years in the energy and telecommunications sectors, according to her biography on CP’s website. She served as president of Hydro-Quebec Distribution, president of Hydro TransEnergie, president of Bell Canada’s Enterprise Group, and as president and CEO of Nordiq Group.
Of CP’s 11 board members, five are women. Besides Courville, they are Jill Denham, who joined the board after a career serving in senior roles in the financial services industry; Rebecca MacDonald, founder and current executive chair of Just Energy Group Inc.; Jane Peverett, a former president and CEO and chief financial officer of British Columbia Transmission Corp. and former CEO of Union Gas Ltd.; and Andrea Robertson, president and CEO of STARS Air Ambulance.
In annual corporate responsibility or sustainability reports, all Class Is tout commitments to achieve more diversity within their ranks. And when it comes to board leadership, all four of the publicly traded U.S. Class Is — CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. — also have female directors.
On Jan. 1, BNSF President and CEO Kathryn Farmer became the first woman to run a Class I.Women serving on those Class Is’ boards are: Donna Alvarado, Linda Riefler and Suzanne Vautrinot at CSX; Lu Cordova at KCS; Marcela Donadio, Amy Miles and Jennifer Scanlon at NS; and Deborah Hopkins and Jane Lute at UP.
The largest Class I, BNSF Railway Inc., is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and doesn’t have its own board. However, the railroad was home to a glass-ceiling buster on Jan. 1 when Kathryn Farmer was promoted to president and CEO. Farmer not only is the first woman to hold the top post at BNSF, she’s also the first to run a Class I.
While examples of high-ranking female executives in North America’s rail industry remain few and far between, the Class Is recognize that embracing diversity goals within their organizations is integral to future growth and success.
As President and CEO JJ Ruest stated about CN in the company’s 2020 annual report:
“We are continuing to push toward increasing inclusion and diversity in our teams and ensuring equity. We all obtain stronger results from a wider range of insights and perspectives, and we all have a role to play in creating an inclusive workplace where every CN employee can be their authentic self.”
