Facebook has only men on its board of directors

Most of Facebook Inc.'s more than 800 million users are women. You wouldn't know it from looking at the board, whose seven directors are all men.

The disconnect puts the social-media company at odds with others in the industry that have at least one female director, including LinkedIn and Google, and from most big public companies in the United States. Just 11.3 percent of the Fortune 500 had male-only boards last year, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that researches women and business issues.

"We're long past having to defend or explain why women should be on boards, given all the data that shows how companies with female as well as male directors perform better," said Anne Mulcahy, former chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox and a director at Johnson & Johnson, Target and Washington Post Co. "It's unfortunate when companies with a large percentage of women constituents don't reflect that in their boardrooms."

A Catalyst survey of Fortune 500 companies found that those with three or more female directors outperformed those with fewer between 2005 and 2009, achieving on average 43 percent better return on equity. As Facebook prepares to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering, the composition of its board shows its business strategy is faulty, said Susan Stautberg, co-founder of Women Corporate Directors, which promotes female board membership.



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