Skip to Content

Corporate Boards Remain American Even As Business Goes Global

“The biggest U.S. businesses increasingly depend on international revenue, but most boards remain All-American—and that could threaten firms’ prospects for expansion abroad,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

A new study released by Egon Zehnder, an executive-search firm, finds that just 7.2% of corporate directors in the S&P 500 index are foreign nationals, a tiny gain of 0.6 percentage points since 2008. And roughly 45% of such concerns have zero non-U.S. citizens as board members.

International make up of U.S. boards

“International revenue represented 37% of S&P 500 companies’ revenue last year, an increase of 5.5 percentage points since 2008, according to the report. Nearly three-fourths of these businesses have some international revenue.”

“Even the most global U.S. companies are fairly provincial: One in 10 directors is a foreign national at the 100 businesses where more than half of their revenue comes from outside America, the report stated.”