Former Surrey mayor and BC Liberal Party leadership hopeful Dianne Watts is making a new home in the corporate world.
Canfor Corporation (TSX: CFP) announced June 7 that it has appointed Watts to its board of directors.
Watts had been the MP for South Surrey-White Rock from 2015-17 prior to running for the leadership of the BC Liberals.
Other ex-politicians in the Canfor boardroom include Glen Clark, the former BC NDP premier during the mid-to-late 1990s, and John Baird, who served as foreign affairs minister from 2011-15 under the Conservative government.
Canfor’s website lists 12 boardroom directors, not including Watts, as of June 8, 2018.
Eleven of the 12 directors listed are men.
A 2016 report from Status of Women Canada noted that “only 14.5% of directors of Financial Post 500 (FP500) companies are women. Remove Crown corporations from the equation, and women make up only 10% of directors.”
Meanwhile another 2014 report from the federal government had earlier called on businesses to increase representation of women in the boardroom to 30% by 2019. At the time the 2014 report was released, Canfor had no women board directors.
