Byline: Carol Kleiman
"Even with cigar smoking banned in boardrooms, women still are a minority as directors."
So says Jeffrey E. Christian, the highly respected chairman and co-CEO of Christian & Timbers, an international executive search firm headquartered in New York. It has 14 offices worldwide.
When Christian made that statement, I thought he meant that since most women don't smoke cigars _ and everyone knows male directors traditionally do _ that it was a barrier women simply couldn't overcome, like being able to play on all-male golf courses.
I thought he was implying that being "cigarless" makes it all that more difficult to crash corporate boardrooms and to penetrate the glass ceiling.
And from there I reasoned that since cigar smoking now is banned in most boardrooms along with other forms of tobacco, one requirement to get to the top no longer exists, no matter what Groucho Marx might have to say about cigar-banning.
But Christian, author of "The Headhunter's Edge" (Random House, $24.95) has a different take, one that's far more serious _ and not all smoke and mirrors.
"It's a way of saying that some things have changed, but not a lot," said the executive. "Even though the percentage of women directors certainly has improved over the past decade, they're still underrepresented: Women still are a very small minority of members of boards of directors."
The lack of representation is damaging because board experience is an important factor in finding "qualified" candidates for the highest executive positions, according to Christian.
He describes the exclusion of women as "a self-fulfilling prophecy" by corporate America because it can rule out a female candidate, especially at the CEO level, if she's never served as a director.
In a recent survey by the search firm, only an average of 17 percent of board members at 60 top U.S. companies were women.
The most seats were held by women at consumer products firms, which had an average of 22 percent _ still a low number considering that women are the country's most avid consumers.
There is a modicum of good news, however, reports Christian, who is known for his high-level board and CEO searches. "Our requests for board searches have risen 67 percent since January, and many boards now consider directorships made up equally of women and men as their goal," he said.
But most companies do not specifically ask for female candidates in order to make their boards better reflect their customer base. Instead, they're seeking directors with strong financial backgrounds "as a reaction to Enron," Christian said.
With so many barriers facing them, it's not surprising that few women inch their way up from boards of directors to chief executives of top companies: Only 1.2 percent of Fortune 500 top leaders are women.
But the ability to find and place top women business executives is one reason Christian is so respected: He's known, for instance, for recruiting Carly Fiorina as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., one of the highest-ranked women in the U.S.
Fiorina had the requisite board experience: She had served on two major boards and now is a director of Cisco Corp.
"She stood alone as the best candidate," said Christian of Fiorina. "We were looking for real leadership."
I asked the headhunter, if all candidates have similar experience and skills, what is it that makes him choose the one he will recommend for CEO?
"The best are those whom everyone says wonderful things about, who have strong reputations," he said.
Even if they don't smoke cigars.
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(Send e-mail to ckleiman@tribune.com.)
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(c) 2002, Chicago Tribune.
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