A leading City figure who is to be named the first woman president of Britain's leading business lobby organisation the CBI today called for greater boardroom diversity.

Helen Alexander said companies who employed only white males in senior posts risked damaging their businesses by indulging in narrow “groupthink”.

The 52-year-old, who has been nominated to take over from British Airways chairman Martin Broughton, in the role that speaks for a third of Britain's workforce, criticised the slow growth in female appointments to FTSE 100 boards, where women still occupy under 12 per cent of directorships.

She would serve for two years as Confederation of British Industry president if she is given formal approval at its annual meeting on 2 June.

Her role will involve lobbying, meeting ministers and promoting UK business internationally at a sensitive time for the economy.

Ms Alexander, who was chief executive of The Economist Group for 11 years and is seen as responsible for a huge jump in the weekly magazine's circulation, said that her message applied to all forms of diversity, including race and social background as well as gender.

“It is clear that teams that have diversity within them don't result in groupthink,” she said. “People come at things in a different way and organisations have to take those into account.”

Among the FTSE 100 companies, just 131 of the total directorships — or 11.7 per cent — are held by women, according to the Female FTSE Report 2008.

At the top of the index is Alliance Trust which has three women on its board of seven, including a female Chairman Lesley Knox and female chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox.

AMEC and Marks & Spencer come joint second with 33 per cent women boards. RSA Insurance and Sainsbury's have a 30 per cent women board.

But 22 companies in the FTSE 100 do not have a single woman in a senior position. These include BAE Systems, Thomas Cook and British Energy.
Ms Alexander said these firms needed to re-think their attitude to management.

“The tone and range of things that are discussed [on boards] can be improved with a diverse team,” she said.

She said: “Few of us in business have ever experienced more uncertain times. Constructive dialogue will be critical and issues about the future shape and size of the economy and the role and affordability of government will be at the top of the agenda.

“The voice of British business has never been more important than it is today and I am looking forward to playing a very active part,” she said. Mr Broughton described his successor as “first class”.

He said she would bring “real hands-on understanding of the competitive and other pressures facing business today”.

Ms Alexander, who is married with three children, joined The Economist Group as marketing manager in 1985, rising to group chief executive in 1997. She stepped down last June.

She is a non-executive director at Rolls-Royce and energy giant Centrica, and an adviser to private equity group Bain Capital. She previously sat on the boards of Northern Foods and BT.

Ms Alexander, an Oxford and Insead graduate, is known as a keen patron of the arts and serves as a trustee of the Tate.

She was educated at St Paul's Girl's School in London, where she is now deputy head of the governors.

• 

  Picasso & Modern British Art - review

  Tate Britain's exhibition is an exploration of Picasso's influence on seven English contemporaries

  ---

• 

  Ken Livingstone's friends in the East

  The Mayor of Tower Hamlets defeated Labour to be elected. Livingstone not only backed him but some of Ken's key players are now at the heart of running the council. Stephen Robinson reports

  ---