Our Story
- 2020
The advantages that the inclusion of more women in leadership roles brings to companies and society at large is well-known, but gender gaps that hinder organizations’ long-term sustainability continue to appear. According to research by CESA’s Center for Corporate Governance Studies, in 2018 just 15% of positions on boards of directors for stocks and bonds issuers were held by women. This figure is 21.2% in 2022, which suggests that these corporate governance bodies are still a long way from achieving gender equity. In order to help mitigate this problem, the Resume Bank was created in 2020 to disseminate the profiles of Colombia’s women leaders within corporate spaces and increase their chance of obtaining leadership positions, especially on boards of directors or equivalent bodies.
The initiative is being carried out thanks to the joint work of CESA Business School, through its Center for Corporate Governance Studies (CEGC) which was the first of its kind when it was created in 2010, with Women in Connection, the 30% Club, Colombia’s vice-presidency, the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, and CESA’s Women on Boards of Directors Leadership Initiative, with allies including Aequales, ANDI, Deloitte, IFC of the World Bank Group, the Colombian Institute for Corporate Governance (ICGC), Orza and the Page Group.
The Resume Bank showcases the profiles of more than 290 women leaders who have held or are willing to hold, based on their training and experience, positions on boards of directors and/or who hold leadership positions at the first, second or third level in their companies, mainly in Colombia.
The resource is available to those seeking a specific profile for their boards of directors at no cost, and through a ‘blind profile methodology’ suggested by our ally, Page Executive, in order to mitigate biases in the selection process. An anonymous summary of the requested profile is therefore sent as the first filter.
- 2021
The Resume Bank was consolidated as an excellent reference source for companies. While in 2020, 19 consultation processes were carried out (17 for boards of directors, two for senior management) and 349 profiles were made visible, in 2021, 93 consultation processes were carried out (73 for boards and 20 for senior management) and 1,224 profiles were made visible. By the end of 2021, 112 processes had been carried out and 1,573 profiles had been made visible in total.
In order to give the Resume Bank greater scope, CESA, through its Center for Corporate Governance Studies, joined with Servinformation to create an app that would make the female talent who have put their resume, and their trust, in the Resume Bank more easily available to the business sector. Servinformación, para crear una aplicación que permitiera poner a disposición del sector empresarial, con mayor facilidad de acceso, el talento femenino que ha depositado su hoja de vida y confianza en el banco.
- 2022
With the support of PepperSpace StudioThe Resume Bank’s brand identity was designed and created, along with its website – Diverse Boards – which allowed companies and women (supply and demand) to interact directly with the Resume Bank, which has been overseen by CESA, as its information custodian, since its inception. The name Diverse Boards works in two ways: referring to diverse women on a path to secure leadership positions, who join together for this purpose, and, at the same time, diverse boards of directors, diverse corporate governance bodies, and all the benefits associated with them.