Sixty-five percent of head-hunters say firms shouldn’t discriminate positively towards appointing women to boards.

New figures compiled by InterExec, which caters for executives seeking packages over £200k, have revealed that 65 percent of senior executive head-hunters don’t agree with the latest proposals to discriminate positively towards women in the boardroom. The research was carried out following the publication of a report by Lord Davies on diversity in the boardroom, which was presented to the Government earlier this year. Lord Davies’ report made a call for action to Chairs and Chief Executives to improve the diversity of their boards and to encourage Women onto them.

The figures of the report, which were compiled from a survey of 100 head-hunters across the UK, showed that most senior executive head-hunters didn’t agree with positive discrimination, but also 89 percent of those surveyed believed that there is a danger that the recommendations will result in some optimal candidates being turned down as a result of positive discrimination. And 70 percent of the respondents also didn’t think that the proposals to increase women in the board room were workable.

Kit Scott-Brown, managing director of InterExec, commented: “I think it would be a crying shame if the best candidate didn’t get the job, completely regardless of their age, sex, colour or creed. It should be skills, experience and aptitude for the job that count. Unfortunately, positive discrimination could mean that the best candidate could lose out on a board room position, which I feel is wrong.”