New research by InterExec has revealed that 65% of senior executive head-hunters don’t believe in positive discrimination towards women in the board room.

In a recent report, Lord Davies called for Chairs and Chief Executives to improve the diversity of their boards and to encourage women onto them. This provided the basis for InterExec’s research.

Not only did 65 of the 100 head-hunters disagree with this positive discrimination, 89 believed that positive discrimination could lead to the most suitable candidates being turned down. Furthermore, 70% of the respondents didn’t think that the proposals to increase women in the board room were workable.

Kit Scott-Brown, managing director of InterExec, commented: “I think it would be a crying shame if the best candidate didn’t get the job, completely regardless of their age, sex, colour or creed.  It should be skills, experience and aptitude for the job that count.  Unfortunately, positive discrimination could mean that the best candidate could lose out on a board room position, which I feel is wrong.”