NASHVILLE, TN — FB Financial Corporation (NYSE: FBK), the holding company of Nashville-based FirstBank, has been recognized for its board diversity for having more than 20 percent of its board of director’s seats held by women.
FB Financial was recently named a 2020 Women on Boards Winning “W” Company for the year 2017, a recognition granted to publicly traded companies whose boards consist of at least 20 percent women. Only 36 percent of the 3,192 companies tracked last year reached that mark, according to 2020 Women on Boards, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 with the goal of increasing the percentage of women serving on corporate boards to 20 percent or greater by 2020.
“Thanks to companies such as FB Financial Corporation, the percentage of women serving on corporate boards continues to increase. In 2017, our Gender Diversity Index of Fortune 1000 companies increased to 20.8 percent from 14.6 percent in 2011, when we established our GDI benchmark,” said Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, CEO of the Los Angeles-based organization. “That means we hit our initial goal before the target year of 2020; however, more than one-fourth of all public companies still have no women directors, so we have a long way to go before all of them fully embrace gender diversity on their boards.”
FB Financial’s nine-person board includes Agenia Clark, President and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, and Emily Reynolds, Vice Chair and Re gent of the Tennessee Board of Regents.
“We have an outstanding board of directors, and our goal is to fill each of our seats with the most-qualified individuals,” said FirstBank Executive Chairman Jim Ayers. “Agenia and Emily bring a vast amount of experience and valuable perspective to the board.”
Prior to taking her position with the Girl Scouts, Clark was vice president of human resources for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation. and served as senior director of human resources at Vanderbilt University. She also serves on the boards of the Governors Foundation for Health & Wellness and the Ayers Foundation, the philanthropic organization of Jim Ayers’ family. Recently, Agenia served on the “MLS2Nashville” founding committee, which brought Nashville its first Major League Soccer franchise.
Reynolds was the 31st secretary of the U.S. Senate from 2003–2007 after serving as a special assistant to former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr. and later as U.S. Sen. Bill Frist’s state director and chief of staff. Reynolds, who retired as the senior vice president for government relations for the Tennessee Valley Authority, is also on the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee board of directors.
“I’m proud that we are among the companies that recognize the importance of having a diverse board of directors,” Ayers said, “and I hope the 2020 Women on Boards organization continues to have success in getting even more companies involved.”
