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BMO named to Women Lead Here benchmark of executive gender diversity

March 26, 2021 | Culture, Diversity, equity and inclusion, Purpose, Recognition

BMO has earned a place on the 2021 Report on Business Women Lead Here list, an annual editorial benchmark to identify best-in-class executive gender diversity in corporate Canada.

Established in 2020 by The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine, the Women Lead Here initiative applies a proprietary research methodology to determine Canadian corporations with the highest degree of gender diversity among executive ranks.

“BMO has been championing the advancement of women within the bank for over three decades and this recognition is testament to the long-term work we’ve undertaken to bring greater gender balance to our bank,” said Mona Malone, Chief Human Resources Officer and Head of People & Culture, BMO Financial Group. “From the work we started in the 1990s with the establishment of the Task Force on the Advancement of Women in the Bank to the recent unveiling of our Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 strategy, we’ve been steadfast in our support for gender parity and inclusion. We will continue to uphold our commitment to empowering women now and into the future.”

For the 2021 ranking, Report on Business analyzed of nearly 500 large, publicly-traded Canadian companies, evaluating the ratio of female-identifying to male-identifying executives in the top three tiers of executive leadership. The results were applied to a weighted formula that also factored in company performance, diversity and year-to-year change. In total, 71 companies earned the 2021 Women Lead Here seal, with a combined average of 44 per cent of executive roles held by female-identifying individuals.

The bank’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in its workforce has yielded important results:

  • More than 41 per cent of senior leadership roles are held by women
  • Women hold 45 per cent of Independent Board roles

The full list of 2021 Women Lead Here honourees can be found in the April issue of Report on Business magazine, distributed with The Globe and Mail on Saturday, March 27th, and online now at tgam.ca/WomenLeadHere.

Learn more about BMO’s Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 strategy and about more recent recognitions for BMO.

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