LVMH On The Hunt for Women Executive Committee Members

RedTracker| LVMH’s Chantal Gaemperie, head of human resources and synergies for the group, is on the hunt for talented, capable women executives writes The Independent. Refusing to discuss the issue of quotas on women, LVMH is nevertheless under one — a demand that 35 percent of the company’s board of directors seats go to women by 2012. Presently, LVMH has two women directors out of 18.

Worldwide 80 percent of LVMH’s shoppers are women, three-quarters of its 83,000 employees are women, 61 percent of its executives and 31 percent of its executive committee members are women. France’s new quota law demands that 40 percent of non-executive directors be women within six years.

Similar efforts to recruit women to board seats are in motion throughout Europe. In Britain a campaign has been launched to recruit women board members without a quota.

Chantal Gaemperie refuses to discuss research indicating that women make better leaders.

“I don’t think it’s a helpful distinction to make because it leads to stereotypes and that can be dangerous; you get women who are just as interested in power for power’s sake as you do men. What I do think, however, is that women have different competences and, because of family life and having to juggle so many things, they come to work with a different experience. And it is that diversity which givesus a competitiveadvantage.” via The Independent

The top executive for LVMH does agree that although women are graduates of the top business schools, not enough of them are represented in senior positions. LVMH founder and CEO Bernard Arnault is committed to changing that reality.