Two Important Pieces of the Corporate Diversity Jigsaw: The Meaning of Diversity and its Relevance to Corporate Governance


Speaker: Dr. Akshaya Kamalnath, Senior Lecturer, Australian National University College of Law

Moderator: Prof. Norman Ho, Peking University School of Transnational Law

Date and Time: June 6 (Monday), 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM (Beijing Time)

Zoom Meeting ID:896 8032 1757 (passcode: 320035)

Language: English

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Akshaya Kamalnath is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, College of Law. She has law degrees from New York University (LLM), Deakin University (PhD), and NALSAR India (BA.LLB(Hons)). Akshaya’s research and teaching interests focus on the broad themes of corporate law, corporate governance, corporations and society, and corporate insolvency and her work is often comparative in nature. She blogs atThe Hitchhikers Guide to Corporate Governance.

Abstract:

In a forthcoming book,The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw, I look at pieces of the corporate diversity jigsaw that are either not discussed or are generally left out of the discourse. Issues like how diversity should be defined, at what levels of the corporation should diversity be encouraged and how, the role of corporate culture in ensuring diversity and inclusion are some of the pieces of the diversity puzzle that the book examines. This talk will focus on the first two chapters of the book – defining diversity, and diversity and corporate governance. The first chapter argues that diversity includes both demographic and cognitive diversity and that different facets of diversity might be significant at different levels of the firm. The second chapter argues that although board diversity is often emphasised over and above diversity in management, the latter is just as important as board diversity, if not more; and that the diversity focus in both the board and in senior management should go beyond gender. This chapter also assesses the usefulness of appointing a chief diversity officer which has become an increasingly popular role in present times.