JPMorgan, Goldman, Ford, others to disclose directors’ race and gender

Four top Wall Street firms and Ford Motor will start to disclose the race and gender of individual directors under deals reached with New York City pension officials, the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, said on Thursday, while a utility company has pushed back on the idea.

According to a representative for Lander, the companies, which include JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in addition to Ford, will provide the self-identified disclosures on race, ethnicity and gender.

Such person-by-person disclosures are becoming more common as tables in annual corporate proxy statements as companies look to show investors their concerns for boardroom and workforce diversity.

However not all boardrooms have embraced the idea. Lander’s statement said the city’s pension funds have filed a shareholder resolution with NextEra Energy calling for similar disclosures, but that NextEra has recommended investors vote against the idea at the company’s annual shareholder meeting set for May 19.