HispanicBusiness

The vast majority of major U.S. corporations lack Latino representation on their boards, according to a study released Wednesday by the Washington-based Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility.

The HACR report found that 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies do not have any Hispanics on their corporate boards, and only 1 percent of executive officer positions were held by Hispanics. A total of 125 Hispanics serve on the boards of 145 companies, comprising 172 Fortune 500 seats.

(The HACR numbers differ from the annual Corporate Elite tally appearing in January issues of Hispanic Business magazine in part because foreign nationals serving on Fortune 500 boards were included in HACR's accounting.)

"Latinos remain seriously underrepresented in corporate boardrooms," said Carlos Orta, HACR president and CEO. "Despite accounting for approximately 14 percent of the nation's population, they represent only 3 percent of all Fortune 500 board seats. The Hispanic community's economic contributions to corporate America far outweigh its decision-making influence."

Commerce Department estimates put the Hispanic purchasing power at more than $860 billion, and estimates by the HispanTelligence unit of Hispanic Business Inc. say it will reach $1 trillion by 2010.

The HACR analysis found that if Hispanics overall are poorly represented on the boards of major corporations, Hispanic women fare even worse, representing less than 1 percent of all Fortune 500 directorships.

Nonetheless, the study also found that Hispanics tend to serve on the board of companies with generally high revenues, and 48 of the companies have had at least one Hispanic on its board for at least 10 years. Those companies include Citigroup, Dow Chemical, McDonald's, Target and Wal-Mart.

"Undoubtedly, Hispanics are making progress in penetrating barriers to corporate governance, (but) their talents and perspectives are still largely underutilized," said Mr. Orta. For example, the study reported that "at current growth rates, it would take more than 100 years for Hispanics to achieve population parity in company boardrooms."

HACR, a non-profit group that promotes Hispanic participation in corporate America, has been conducting the survey since 1993. The group's full report may be downloaded at its Web site, http://www.hacr.org/.