Board Composition Changes After an Initial Public Offering

This paper follows Luoma and Goodstein (1999) who find increased stakeholder representation on the boards of U.S. companies. This study describes the changes in board composition by director type (stakeholder or shareholder) and by gender (male or female) of large Australian companies after listing. We find a substantial increase in the number of directors holding shares in the firms in which they hold their directorships and that essentially directors putting their own capital at risk is an important element in the Australian capital market. We also report a slight decrease in the proportion of female directors post listing.