The 2023 Nordic Spencer Stuart Board Index covers the 25 largest companies in each market listed in Denmark (OMX Copenhagen), Finland (OMX Helsinki), Norway (OBX), and Sweden (OMX Stockholm), measured by market capitalisation as of 31 May 2023.
Market values range from €336.2 billion (Novo Nordisk) to €1.5 billion (Borregaard).
The purpose of the survey is to provide a comprehensive review of governance practices in these 100 companies at a given point and to compare practices across these Nordic neighbours, while identifying different trends over time.
Information has been compiled from publicly available sources. Board composition data was recorded as of 31 May 2023, and remuneration information, meeting frequencies, and committee structure detail is derived, for the most part, from companies’ latest available annual reports.
All averages exclude employee-elected members unless otherwise specified. Chair tenure and age are treated separately. However, they are included in other categories such as women, foreign directors, and external commitments, unless stated otherwise. In discussing CEOs and CFOs, we are concerned only with those who sit on their company’s board.
Some constituents have changed since the 2022 edition of this Board Index.
The breakdown of the 100 companies by sector is as follows:
Constituents of the Nordic Board Index
|
Number of companies |
| Industrial |
49 |
| Financial services |
17 |
| TMT&S |
13 |
| Healthcare |
11 |
| Consumer |
10 |
Foreign directors are defined as being of different nationality from the company on whose board they sit. If a director has multiple nationalities and one of them is the local nationality, he or she is considered a national. The new directors’ category relates to those appointed in the 12 months preceding the cut-off date, i.e. between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2023.
In our tables we state remuneration data in Euros to allow comparison between the countries within the sample. Average yearly exchange rates are applied.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the company secretaries and investor relations directors in our sample who kindly reviewed data from their own boards as we prepared this 2023 edition of the Nordic Spencer Stuart Board Index.
Spencer Stuart collaborators
Copenhagen: Kai Hammerich
Oslo: Kristian Carlstedt, Nadia Kangmasto, Hedda Lindgard, Anne Syrrist, Elena Tragudistis
Stockholm: Ingrid Larsby-Arvered, Rune Jorgensen, Jesper Ramso
Amsterdam: Livia Enomoto
London: Keith Fryer, Alastair Rolfe