...“There are larger numbers [of female CFOS] and the numbers are growing a bit faster than for CEOs,” says Meggin Thwing, vice-president of MSCI’s governance research.  MSCI data show that out of 2,470 big global companies, 203 had a female chief financial officer at the end of September this year — just over 8 per cent of the total, up from 6.8 per cent in 2015. In comparison, women held around 3.6 per cent of the chief executive positions in 2016, up from 3.2 per cent last year. In the US, women accounted for 12.2 per cent of finance directorships in 2015 and 13.3 per cent in 2016 — while the share of female chief executives stalled at around 4 per cent. Ms Uhl’s appointment at Shell raises the number of female CFOs in the FTSE 100 to 12 at a time of growing frustration over the broader lack of progress on gender diversity on boards. Governments are increasingly calling on large companies to close the gender gap at the top of their organisations, and some countries — such as Norway — have set quotas to ensure more gender balance. Academic research suggests that having more women on boards can boost growth and return on equity...

[also refers to Citibank (part of Citigroup), Diageo, easyJet, Enron, Marks & Spencer, Shell]