The FTSE's four female bosses.
In the Candace Bushnell book and TV series, the city is New York and Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda meets regularly to discuss the ups and downs of their lives. In the City of London there are, coincidentally, just four women running companies in the FTSE 100 (UKX) and three of them are American -- although the similarity ends there.
That's just 4% of companies with female CEOs. In fact, less than 7% of all FTSE 100 executive directors are women, according to figures from Boardwatch. The numbers are better when non-executive directorships are included. Overall 17% of directors are female, with women comprising one in five of non-execs.
There is one female chairman, Alison Carnwath of Land Securities (LSE: LAND), thus relieving 99% of boards from the politically sensitive choice between the terms 'chairman', 'chairwoman' and 'chairperson'.
Target
Last year the Davis Report set a target for 25% of FTSE 100 directors to be women by 2015. To get there, Lord Davies calculated that around a third of new directorships should go to women in each of the intervening years. Roughly speaking, that programme is on track. But though it makes for a more respectable representation of women on company boards, it is still remarkable how few there are in executive posts.
Who are the four and what companies do they run?
Stereotype
Angela Ahrends perhaps best fits the stereotype. An American who carved out her career in the fashion industry in New York, she became CEO of luxury goods retailer Burberry (LSE: BRBY) in 2006. Turnover has more than doubled in that time and the shares have risen 150%.
In my imaginary 'FTSE Sex in the City', this week's episode would see Ms Ahrends unburdening her problems. Burberry stock dropped 20% after a profits warning. The suggestion that status-conscious Chinese might be reining back spending reverberated across the whole luxury goods sector. But even after a 20% drop. the shares still trade on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23, reflecting the market's belief in the long-term growth story.
Insecurity
Cynthia Carroll is less secure at miner Anglo-American (LSE: AAL). According to the Daily Telegraph, several big investors have lobbied for her to be replaced. Since she became CEO in March 2007 the shares have dropped 30%, underperforming rivals Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) and BHP (LSE: BHP).
A recent 50% drop in interim earnings did not help her cause. But her efforts to diversify Anglo's business away from South Africa have been dogged by problems. The huge Minas Rio Brazilian iron ore project has suffered delays and cost escalation, and the company was forced to sell a 25% stake in its Chilean copper mine to the state-owned producer, after spending billions of dollars developing it. Nevertheless, she takes credit for restructuring the company that had sprawling and costly operations before her arrival.
Some pundits think Anglo may be vulnerable to an opportunistic bid.
First Lady
The third American is Marjorie Scardino of media group Pearson (LSE: PSON). In 1997, she was the first woman to be appointed a FTSE 100 chief executive. The group has been transformed in that time, although the shares are pretty much back where they started.
The business mix of education, business information and book publishing, including the Financial Times group and Penguin, is now more heavily skewed to the education sector. The company's strategic challenge is to secure its position in digital content, which represents nearly a third of sales.
Sleep
It is perhaps the Brit among the four, Alison Cooper, who can sleep most peacefully at night. As CEO of Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT) since 2010, she runs a company in one of the most defensive sectors, and where the degree of global consolidation is such that any thoughts of a takeover bid might well be squashed by competition authorities.
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These female CEOs run very different businesses in diverse sectors and, by and large, have been successful. Perhaps there should be more of them.
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> Tony owns shares in Rio Tinto and Imperial Tobacco but no other shares mentioned in this article.
