LEAP Board Representation Research Reports
2010 API Representation on Fortune 500 Boards
In 2010, 96 Asian and Pacific Islanders held 115 board seats at 98 Fortune 500 companies. In contrast, APIs constitute 5.6% of the U.S. total population and its buying power is expected to grow 42 percent from $544 billion in 2010 to $775 billion in 2015, according to a 2010 report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth.
In 2010, the Fortune 500 collectively generated more than $10 trillion in revenue (more than 2/3 of the total U.S. GDP), employed nearly 25 million people (roughly 1/6 of the U.S. labor force) and contracted with tens of thousands of suppliers across the United States. Their economic and social impact is clear. The economic clout of APIs, too, is clear. Its market size in the U.S. would be positioned as the 6th largest “Asian” economy in the world — larger than the GDP of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore combined, according to World Bank data. Moreover, the U.S. Census projects APIs share of the total U.S. population will grow 75% over the next four decades.
Key Findings
Fortune 500
2010
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There are 96 APIs holding 115 board seats at 98 Fortune 500 companies.
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The 115 board seats represent 2.08% of the total 5,520 board seats in the Fortune 500.
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Fifteen (15.62%) out of the 96 API directors are women.
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Ten API directors serve as chair, president and/or (co) chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company.
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The ethnic breakdown of these API directors is as follows: Chinese (37), Asian Indian (34), Japanese (14), Pakistani (3), Vietnamese (3), Korean (2), Filipino (1), Singaporean (1) and Sri Lankan (1).
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Fifteen API board members sit on more than one Fortune 500 board of which 4 directors sit on 3 Fortune 500 boards holding 12 seats: Victor J. Dzau, Rajat K. Gupta, Andrea Jung and Arun Sarin.
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Thirteen Fortune 500 companies have more than one API director on their boards.
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They include Goldman Sachs Group (2), Best Buy (2), PepsiCo (2), Safeway (2), Cisco Systems (2), Staples (2), Avon Products (2), Synnex (3), Yahoo (2), AECOM Technology (3), SunGard Data Systems (2), Mattel (2) and MasterCard (4). -
MasterCard has 4 APIs on its board of directors, more than any other company in the Fortune 500.
Disclosure
LEAP made every effort to achieve a high degree of accuracy. Information on race, ethnicity and gender composition of board members is not always publicly available. If errors or omissions are discovered, LEAP will make necessary adjustments. Please contact Grace Toy, Sr. Vice President of Administration and CFO, at gtoy@leap.org.
