Microsoft Has Added a Fifth Woman to its Board of Directors

Tech giant Microsoft announced this week that it has added a fifth woman to its board.

The company said on Thursday that it has nominated GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley to its board of directors. It was just four years ago that Microsoft had only two women on its board.

The company also said that Charles Noski, the former vice-chairman of AT&T, and Helmut Panke, former chairman of BMW, are not seeking reelection to the board. The total of the company’s board will now be 13 members, of which five are women.

“Emma is an accomplished business leader who led major advances in research and development at GSK and will bring her significant insights and global experience to Microsoft,” said John Thompson, Microsoft’s independent board chair. “We believe she will be a valuable addition to the board.”

The other women on Microsoft’s board are Gap’s finance chief Teri List-Stoll, Sandra Peterson, an operating partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Penny Pritzker, the founder of PSP Partners; and Padmasree Warrior, CEO of Fable Group who was also a former top executive at Cisco and Motorola.

Earlier in the week Microsoft also said it has authorized another $40 billion for share buybacks and will raise its quarterly dividend by 5 cents to 51 cents a share.

The 51-cent dividend is 2 cents above the consensus estimate among three analysts polled by FactSet and is payable on December 12 for shareholders of record as of November 21.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and have not been compensated for this article.