KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): Demands of today's reality require corporates to look at other aspects of diversity such as age when considering the composition of their board of directors, according to the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM) chairman Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar (pictured).

This is especially as corporates today operate in an era of uncertainty, resulting in a rapid expansion of traditional responsibilities of boards, to include new areas of potential risks that they are increasingly expected to address, but of which they have little or no experience.

"The ensemble of new responsibilities required of corporate boards necessitates diversity and inclusiveness in all its forms, be it in terms of gender, age, nationality, skills, industry experience of professional background. Diversity is a crucial enabler of good governance.

"Mindsets need to change. The rules of success have altered significantly and millennials have things to teach the baby boomers too.

"It is worth noting that the average age of the chief executive officers of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon is 46, and they control a market cap of US$2.379 trillion between them," she said during her opening remarks.

Zarinah, citing PwC's Annual Corporate Directors' Survey 2018, said it is important to add younger corporate board members who are better skilled to contribute to a company's digital transformation, and help boards oversee new opportunities and challenges to drive business growth.

"Younger directors bring increasingly non-traditional backgrounds and skills to the table, and are more likely to support impact investing and care about sustainable products. Additionally, increasing age diversity seems to have a positive impact on achieving better gender diversity in the boardroom," she highlighted.

Zarinah was speaking at the inaugural International Directors Summit — a two-day regional summit that gathers global corporate leaders and directors to exchange insights on the largest issues facing boardrooms of today — organised by ICDM here today.