Good morning, Broadsheet readers! The FDA is recommending that birth control be available over the counter, workplace romance could be a good thing with the right boundaries, and the companies on Fortune's Modern Board 25 list feature more women board members than the industry standard. Happy Thursday!
- Modern Board 25. Fortune yesterday published its second-annual Modern Board 25 list. The ranking of corporate boards considers several criteria: independence, financial performance, and tenure of board members. Another metric, the diversity of boards, is also front and center.
The average Modern 25 board is 39% female, beating the Russell 3000 average of 27%. Three companies on the list—Intuit, Elevance, and Stanley Black & Decker—have a chairwoman at the helm. Four companies also have female CEOs: Citigroup led by Jane Fraser; health care firm Elevance, led by Gail Boudreaux; Walgreens Boots Alliance, led by Roz Brewer; and American Water Works, led by Susan Hardwick.
In fact, Citigroup scored the highest among the 25 companies for gender diversity, with seven women on its board of 13. However, only one of Citigroup's directors is a person of color.
Topping the Modern Board 25 is cybersecurity firm F5, where seven of the 11 directors identify as members of underrepresented groups, including gender and race. F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou said his board has helped him build an executive team that’s nearly as diverse, with 50% of company leadership belonging to underrepresented groups.
Former White House advisor and CEO of the Obama Foundation Valerie Jarrett sits on the board of two Modern Board 25 companies: Ralph Lauren and Walgreens. She advocates for assembling a board whose members bring unique personal and professional experiences to the table.
“For a company competing in a global marketplace, making sure that voices around the table are not just an echo chamber, but bring to the table the rich diversity of their life experiences, enables our board to be strategic,” Jarrett said.
You can view the full list here.
Kinsey Crowley (she/her)
kinsey.crowley@fortune.com
@kinseycrowley
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