Woman Capital was originally an initiative of two women Harvard MBAs.

Stung by the words of a few top businessmen bemoaning the lack of smart, ambitious Dutch women in business and their own observation that women are very seldom appointed to top managerial positions, the initiative was aimed at getting more women into Board positions at Dutch companies.

In November of 2004 we hosted a symposium on Supervisory Board Effectiveness, raising for the first time in the Dutch debate on corporate governance the question of: when is the Board doing a good job? Invitations were sent to Supervisory Board members and potential female members of Supervisory Boards. Four top corporate women sponsored the symposium, which featured Morris Tabaksblat whose committee re-wrote the Dutch Corporate Governance Code in 2004, Professor Jay Lorsch of the Harvard Business School, whose book on this subject had just been published, and Dr Anna Mann, owner/director the top boardroom consultancy and executive search firm in the UK.
Twenty Supervisory Board Chairmen ultimately attended, and were seated at dinner next to twenty top women executives, because in this context, diversity is part of the solution.

We also undertook an extensive search for women with the required professional experience, managerial talent and ambition. During the latter months of 2005 we were able to put forward and successfully place women candidates for positions on eleven Non-executive Boards.

One of our first clients suggested an appropriate name: Woman Capital (as a variation on Human Capital) and this became the name under which we incorporated both a Foundation and a limited liability company: the former for activities that promote diversity in top positions through seminars and publications and other, the latter an executive search firm specializing in women.

We have spent the year 2006 to date meeting hundreds of women, and the data base now numbers more than 6,000 experienced women in many fields of endeavour.

Home   History   Team   Approach   Principles   Opportunities   Registration   Contact   Links   Resources