NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Voya
Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), chairman and chief executive
officer, Rodney O. Martin, Jr.,
presented Voya's path to gender parity of its Board of Directors
during the Women's Forum of New
York's fourth biennial Breakfast of Corporate Champions held
on November 14, 2017. The Women's
Forum of New York is a community
of women leaders working to advance women's leadership. In
2011, the Women's Forum of New
York established the Corporate Board Initiative to help
generate balance on corporate boards, through outreach to senior
influencers and leading companies at the forefront of board
diversity – and a database of uniquely vetted, qualified women for
board positions.
In his third attendance at the event, Martin spoke of Voya's
progress to achieving gender balance as he introduced the "CEO Game
Changers" panel discussion. The panelists included the CEOs
of BlackRock, Merck, the NASDAQ, KeyCorp and General Mills, and was
moderated by CNBC's Andrew Ross
Sorkin.
In discussing Voya's path to gender parity on its board, Martin
said, "When we began this journey as Voya Financial, we researched
best practices and looked at what leading companies were doing from
a corporate governance perspective. The facts were clear to
us – companies with more diverse boards tended to be more
successful. I am proud to share that, four years later, we have
gender parity on our board – with 50% of our independent directors
being women. And, three of our five board committees are
chaired by women."
Voya Director Ruth Ann Gillis
also joined Martin at the event. "An environment where every
board conversation is engaging and enriched by a variety of
viewpoints and experiences enables a better and stronger board,
providing more valuable oversight and insight for the company,"
said Gillis. "Having diverse views also mitigates potential
groupthink, and allows the firm to be readily adaptable in an
ever-changing, competitive landscape."
Martin also noted the business transformation that occurred
concurrent with the evolution of Voya's board. "I don't believe
that it's coincidental that while we were transforming our board
and our Executive Committee, we also transformed our business
performance and our culture –returning more than $3.4 billion of capital to shareholders," shared
Martin.
Voya Financial is committed to diversity, inclusion, and gender
equality, and has been recognized by several notable organizations,
including Catalyst, a global nonprofit working to accelerate
women's progress in leadership. Voya's story was recently
highlighted as a Spotlight Story on the Catalyst website.
For more information about Voya Financial, please visit
www.voya.com
Media Contact:
Jeanne
LaCour
Voya Financial
Office: (212) 309-8949
jeanne.lacour@voya.com
Investor Contact:
Darin Arita
212-309-8999
IR@voya.com
About Voya Financial®
Voya Financial, Inc.
(NYSE: VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their
savings — to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial
needs of approximately 13.6 million individual and institutional
customers in the United States,
Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $11
billion in revenue in 2016. The company had $541 billion in total assets under management and
administration as of Sept. 30, 2017.
With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible —
one person, one family, one institution at a time — Voya's vision
is to be America's Retirement Company®. Certified as a "Great Place
to Work" by the Great Place to Work® Institute, Voya is equally
committed to conducting business in a way that is socially,
environmentally, economically and ethically responsible and has
been recognized as one of the 2017 World's Most Ethical Companies®
by the Ethisphere Institute, as well as one of the Top Green
Companies in the U.S., by Newsweek magazine. Follow Voya Financial
on Facebook and Twitter @Voya.
About the Women's Forum of New York
The Women's
Forum of New York is the city's
premier organization of women leaders. The invitation-only
membership of more than 500 women represents the highest levels of
achievement across all professional sectors from finance to fine
arts. The organization is dedicated to the advancement of women's
leadership through programs which enrich members' lives both
personally and professionally, through The Education Fund, which
enables talented women whose potential has been disrupted by
extreme adversity to resume their education, and through the
Corporate Board Initiative, which extends and expands the
contribution of women leaders through corporate board
participation. Founded in 1974, the Women's Forum of New
York is the flagship of the International Women's Forum, a
global organization of over 6,500 outstanding women leaders in over
74 Forums around the world.
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SOURCE Voya Financial, Inc.