Engineers not welcome in boardroom, says report

Many UK companies do not welcome the prospect of engineers in the boardroom. A survey of UK board directors, carried out by Sainsbury’s Management Fellows (SMF), asked which professional backgrounds added value to a boardroom. The top five were HR (91%), accountancy (88%), law (84%), marketing (81%) and sales (75%). Manufacturing scored just 37%. Only 45 per cent of respondents thought that an engineer would be “suitable” to hold a board position in a non-enginering company. The main reason given was that engineers were likely to lack general business/management qualifications. Dan Mutadich, president of the SMF, said: “This shows how few companies value engineering – both as a valuable skill in running a company and as a route to becoming a board member.” SMF was created by Lord Sainsbury (pictured), who last week resigned his post as science minister after eight years in the job.