Twitter Appoints First Woman To Board Of Directors

Today Twitter announced it is adding former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino to its board of directors. It’s about time.

The company has caught some flack for its lack of female board members. That being said, Twitter is not alone in this matter. Almost half of publicly traded information technology companies have no women on their board, according to research firm GMI Ratings.

Scardino is an interesting choice to fill Twitter’s gender gap. An outspoken supporter of women in business leadership, she’s not new to breaking glass ceilings. In 1997, when she took over as CEO at Pearson, a London-based education and media company, Scardino was the first female chief executive of a FTSE 100 company. She left Pearson in October 2012.

Scardino isn’t just new to Twitter’s board, but to Twitter itself. The company announced the new addition with a tweet (of course) and Scardino responded with gratitude in what seems to be her first tweet ever.

We’re pleased to welcome @marjscar to our board of directors.

— Twitter (@twitter) December 5, 2013

@twitter Thank you. There couldn’t be a more exciting time in Twitter’s history to join!

— Marjorie M Scardino (@marjscar) December 5, 2013

Twitter is known to be a platform for younger people—the majority of Twitter users are between 18 and 34— the 66-year-old Scardino brings an more experienced perspective. Scardino is three decades older than founder Jack Dorsey. Scardino will be the oldest member on Twitter’s board.

Scardino also serves on the Carter Center’s board of trustees and as chair of the MacArthur Foundation’s board of directors.

Photo courtesy of The Financial Times under Creative Commons License via Flickr.