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McKinstry Supports Quotas for Women Execs

Quotas are necessary to increase the number of women in management, Nancy McKinstry, CEO of Wolters Kluwer, said in a recent interview in a newspaper in the Netherlands. In the interview, she backed government-mandated quotas as the only way to improve the pace of the appointment of women in top roles.

The statement followed a recommendation by the Social and Economic Council that the Dutch government require 30 percent of members of the Supervisory Boards of listed companies to be women. The article did not address the use of quotas in other countries.

“I believe that a quota will speed up the process,” McKinstry said in an interview published in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad. “If you create more diversity, you attract more diversity. The only way to win this talent is by creating more diversity.”

McKinstry previously reported she did not support government mandates. But she changed her mind over her years as CEO. She has been CEO since 2003.

“I always strongly believed in the meritocracy and that women would find their own way to these leadership positions over time,” she said. “But I realized about two or three years ago how little progress we had made.”

McKinstry said she often heard discussion in boardrooms that there are not enough qualified women “and that’s simply not true. I believe that a quota will speed up the process.”She said 50 percent of the Wolters Kluwer executive board and 67 percent of its management team are women.” Among top female leaders are Karen Abramson, CEO of the global division of the company’s tax and accounting business, who has held the job since June 2013.

Other top women execs at Wolters Kluwer are Denise Basow, CEO of the Clinical Effectiveness Business Unit, Stacy Caywood, CEO of the Legal & Regulatory Division; Dianna Nole, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health and Cathy Wolfe, President and CEO, Emerging & Developing Markets.  =

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