Divya Momaya, Founder and Director, MentorMyBoard

Aims to recognize trailblazing women directors in India while also driving discussions around the urgent need for diversity and inclusivity in Indian corporate governance

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 22: MentorMyBoard (mentormyboard.com/home) the pioneering tech platform that has been working towards empowering and enabling directors across Indian boardrooms, announces the 3rd edition of its coveted Women Directors Conclave 2023, to be held on December 15th at the Bombay Stock Exchange. The event is designed to drive awareness and conversations about the contribution of women leaders to building stronger and more resilient boardrooms. The Women Directors Conclave will also host awards to acknowledge and celebrate the best women board leaders in India.

MentorMyBoard has been working tirelessly towards building effective and performance-driven boardrooms by mentoring, upskilling, and empowering directors and boardroom leaders to create a performance-driven corporate governance ecosystem.  They have also been aggressively driving the cause of inclusive and diverse boardrooms by empowering women into leadership roles, by providing an ecosystem for continued learning and networking.

Today, as India completes 10 years of iconic enforcement of the Companies Act 2013, one in every five board members on average in Nifty-500 companies is a woman. The Act, which made it mandatory for Indian companies to have at least one woman director on their boards, was a progressive step towards enhancing gender equity at the board level, but after a decade, the glass is both half full and half empty.

Speaking about the urgent need to enhance inclusivity and diversity in Indian boardrooms and to leverage the full potential of ‘Naari Shakti’, Ms. Divya Momaya, Founder of MentorMyBoard, said, “Today, women directors form 18.5% of the cumulative boardrooms across the country. While this is significant progress from when we started, we still have a long way to go. To put that in context, there are only 885 women directors among the 4783 directors that cumulatively sit on the boards of NIFTY 500 companies. We at MentorMyBoard have identified challenges like limited or no access to the boardrooms, lack of upskilling platforms, and a lack of a supportive network of learning ecosystem. These factors, among others, are hampering aspiring and deserving women leaders to realize their full potential and contribute to nation-building. Through the Women Directors Conclave, we wish to highlight these challenges and drive strong conversations around the need for inclusive leadership in performance-driven boardrooms while also acknowledge and celebrate stellar women directors through our awards, for their achievements and contributions to Indian boardrooms.”

Adding to this, Ms. Neha Shah, Co-Founder Director of MentorMyBoard, said, “Given the current geo-political volatility in global business, it is all the more imperative to build robust boardrooms that not only meet the legal mandate but also drive efficiency and performance. And for this, we need to ensure we are able to leverage the complete potential of our human assets, including the brilliance of women directors in boardrooms. This would also be imperative in reaching the GoI’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy while building women directors as strong pillars of the futuristic boards of India.”

Speaking at the Women Directors Conclave in 2022, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji acknowledge the crucial role that MentorMyBord is playing in mentoring aspiring women directors for Indian boardrooms and commended them for this initiative. She further added that by helping women to train for the roles in men dominated boardrooms, MentorMyBoard is not only building stronger and diverse, performance driven boards but is also helping bright and capable women cross the threshold of hesitation, that is holding them back. 

The Women Directors Conclave and Awards have received tremendous response since their inception in 2021. Designed with the objective of celebrating successful women who have carved a space for themselves in male-dominated boardrooms and inviting them to inspire others, the Women Directors Conclave and Awards have also been strongly driving conversations around how gender diversity can enhance better decision-making and resilience in corporate boards. The 2022 edition, hosted at the Bombay Stock Exchange, was a remarkable one as not only did it mark the beginning of MentorMyBoard’s alliance with the Bombay Stock Exchange but also witnessed the presence of Hon’ble Union & Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji, Smt. Ektaa Kapoor, and IAS Vinita Vaid Singal, amongst other dignitaries. 

Today, Bombay Stock Exchange continues to be a strong Venue partner and shares MentorMyBoard’s vision of bringing about a transformation through meaningful initiatives for directors and corporate governance leadership, including independent directors and women directors, across listed companies. The Women Directors Conclave and Awards continue to drive diversity standards, motivating companies to enhance governance practices with more women participation at the board.

For the Iconic Women Directors Awards 2023, which aims at celebrating the Contribution of Women Leaders to the Indian Corporate Boards, MentorMyBoard invites nominations of women directors from Listed and Unlisted Companies, Unlisted growing Companies, women in Executive Director Roles, women directors from SME-listed companies, Not-for-Profit Entities and Institutions, PSUS and also Growing Startups.

Criteria for selection include:

Leadership Impact

Transformation and innovation brought in

Technical and soft skills

Peer Feedbacks

Impact created/Achievements

The selection process includes a stringent jury evaluation process based on performance mechanisms subjective to the submission of documentation. The last date for nomination is November 25, 2023. Winners will be announced a week prior and celebrated in the stellar ceremony on December 15, 2023, at BSE Mumbai, from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

About MentorMyBoard:

It is a one-of-a-kind platform in India for board leaders and transformation to better-governed boards where governance meets goals. As a B2B2C Governance Tech Platform, MENTORMYBOARD aims at enabling directors and boardrooms to learn, upskill, create opportunities, network, thrive, and emerge as effective board leaders and performance-driven boardrooms. They have been acknowledged by the Finance Minister of India, Shreemati Nirmala Seetharaman, for their work done in the WDC 2022 conclave along with Ektaa Kapoor and IAS Vinita Vaid Singhal, amongst other dignitaries, hosted by MentorMyBoard on September 16 at BSE India. MentorMyBoard is also appreciated by the Governance Evangelist, Dr. Kiran Bedi, at the Independent Directors Summit 2023. Since its inception five years ago, MentoryMyBoard has been building a strong community of board leaders, identifying and addressing gaps in the board leadership, whether it is founders, promoters, startup boards, independent directors, women directors, awareness, and governance effectiveness for corporate India. So far, they have trained 450+ directors on their board roles, conducted 10+ board room certification programs, and registered over 20,000+ participants at various MENTORMYBOARD flagship events.

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