Tiffany Comes Under Fire For Lack of Diversity on Its Executive Board

NEW YORK, United States — Tiffany & Co., the luxury-jewellery company that's suffering from declining sales, is now facing criticism for a board marked by long tenures and a lack of diversity.

There are five Tiffany board members over 70, and the entire group’s average age is 67 years, according to the letter. That compares with 62.4 years for Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies. The average tenure is more than 12 years, well above the 8.2-year average for the S&P 500, the firm said.

Union pension fund adviser CtW argues that the ageing board makes it difficult to react to trends and achieve a key Tiffany goal: reaching more millennial shoppers.

“Directors with lengthy tenure may become more complacent, and less likely to question the company’s operations in the face of these challenges,” CtW executive director Dieter Waizenegger said in the letter. “We worry that Tiffany has largely failed to recognise the pitfalls of a highly entrenched board.”

The group, together with its union-affiliated pension funds, owns less than a 1 percent stake in the chain. Tiffany declined to comment.

Few Women

The retailer has no minorities on the board and just two women, representing about 17 percent of the total, CtW said. That compares with an average of 21 percent for the S&P 500.

Tiffany, known for packaging its jewellery in robin’s-egg-coloured boxes, has struggled to revive sales. It abruptly removed chief executive officer Frederic Cumenal in February, putting Kowalski in charge on an interim basis.

The activist hedge fund Jana Partners added three directors to the board as part of a February agreement. But that shake-up stemmed from the investor exerting pressure on Tiffany — rather than an attempt to add diversity.

At the time, Tiffany said it will limit waivers on its directors’ retirement age. That means one board member won’t stand for re-election this year — and two more would have to leave in 2018. That gives the company an opportunity to replace retiring directors with more diverse executives, CtW said.

The firm said that if Tiffany fails to adopt a policy to consider women and minorities for the board, it may take measures, such as starting a campaign to urge shareholders to remove some directors.

By Stephanie Wong; editors: Nick Turner and Mark Schoifet.