BMO Recognized for Excellence in Diversity Among Senior Leaders by The Globe and Mail

TORONTO, March 24, 2023 /CNW/ - For the third consecutive year, BMO has earned a place on the 2023 Report on Business, Women Lead Here list, an annual benchmark recognizing Canadian businesses with the highest achievement for executive gender diversity.

In line with its Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, BMO is committed to accelerating initiatives that eliminate economic and societal barriers to achieve meaningful and sustainable progress for women. The bank's commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in its workforce has yielded important results:

• 42 per cent of senior leadership roles are held by women; globally, this number has remained above 40 per cent since 2016.
• Half of the Independent Directors of BMO's Board of Directors are women.

The Globe and Mail benchmark was established in 2020 by Report on Business magazine and applies a proprietary research methodology to determine Canadian corporations with the highest degree of gender diversity among executive ranks. The ranking companies have made tangible and organizational progress related to executive gender parity.

"Our work to eliminate barriers to inclusion is part of everyone's responsibility at BMO – it's embedded in our culture and our values of diversity and empathy; contributing directly to the strength of our performance," said Darryl White, CEO, BMO Financial Group. "It's critical that our leadership teams represent the diversity of our workforce and the communities we serve, and our work continues as BMO continues as a leading North American bank."

"This recognition from Report on Business' Women Lead Here list is the result of BMO's decades-long commitment to supporting equity in the workplace," said Mona Malone, Chief Human Resource Officer and Head of People and Culture, BMO. "Gender inclusion is a key pillar of BMO's Zero Barriers to Inclusion strategy – the guide for our collective effort to create and champion inclusion for all."

"Recognizing businesses that are successfully tackling issues around executive gender parity is a crucial step in moving the dial," says Dawn Calleja, editor of Report on Business magazine. "While more work is needed across the board, the companies highlighted in this list are examples to others in corporate Canada looking to move toward gender parity and, ultimately, build better businesses."

BMO remains committed to promoting gender equity in the workplace and beyond. Additional initiatives include:

• Last week, BMO announced the 2022 recipients of its BMO Celebrating Women Grant with a total for $230,000 being awarded to 20 women-owned businesses across North America. This is the third year of the BMO Celebrating Women Grant program, and to date it has currently supported 56 women-owned businesses with $530,000 in grant dollars.
• A five-year strategy, Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025, is focused on building a more just society – especially for customers, colleagues and communities facing systemic barriers. Within BMO, Zero Barriers increases diversity representation goals for senior leader and executive roles. The strategy gives further opportunities for women who identify as BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities.
• BMO Alliance for Women, BMO's largest Enterprise Resource Group with over 5,000 members, is dedicated to championing the inclusion, connection, development, advancement and support of women for the betterment of BMO's business, communities and culture.
• Since re-committing $5 billion in capital available over five years to Canadian businesses owned by women, 119,000 women entrepreneurs received support across BMO's Canadian footprint this past year.
• BMO has a long and rich partnership with Catalyst, with BMO's CEO Darryl White serving as Chair of Catalyst's Canada Advisory Board and a Director on Catalyst's Board of Directors.
• Launched a $750 million Women in Business Bond solution with proceeds allocated toward supporting Canadian women-owned businesses.
• Committed $1.2 million in funding to Coralus (formerly SheEO) – a not-for-profit company which offers financial support to businesses led by women-identifying and non-binary people.
• A dedicated website for women, www.bmoforwomen.com, that provides tools and educational resources for women entrepreneurs, including the podcast series Bold(h)er
• Executive sponsorship of Plan International Canada's Girls Belong Here program, which places young women in positions of leadership, power and influence for a day.
• Partnering with The Prosperity Project^TM, as co-presenting sponsor to fund industry-leading research on gender diversity and intersectionality in Corporate Canada.

For the 2023 ranking, Report on Business conducted a journalistic analysis of approximately 500 large publicly traded Canadian companies based on revenue, evaluating the ratio of female-identifying to male-identifying executives in the top three tiers of executive leadership. The resultant data was applied to a weighted formula that also factored in company performance, diversity and year-to-year change.

The 2023 Women Lead Here list is in the April 2023 issue of Report on Business magazine, distributed with The Globe and Mail on Saturday March 25, 2023, and online at tgam.ca/WomenLeadHere.

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $1.15 trillion as of January 31, 2023, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.1 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.5 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group