The numbers come first. Sixty-one S&P 100 companies have eliminated explicit diversity criteria for future board members since 2023, according to an ESGAUGE analysis of filings and governance documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. Three years ago, nearly every major U.S. company formally considered diversity when choosing new directors. Now, most don't.
The list of companies that have removed such language reads like a roll call of American enterprise: Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Starbucks, and Wells Fargo are all among those that have dropped diversity provisions for directors in the last three years.
The retreat extended beyond the boardroom in several cases. Six companies — Advanced Micro Devices, Capital One Financial, Microsoft, Starbucks, Uber Technologies, and Wells Fargo — had gone further by adopting diversity criteria for CEO succession as well. All but Microsoft have since removed that language, according to ESGAUGE.
Starbucks had previously required that candidates 'who reflect diverse backgrounds, including, but not limited to, diversity of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation' be included in its pool of potential CEO candidates. That language is now gone. AMD scrapped its pledge to 'include qualified female and racially/ethnically diverse candidates' in its CEO pool, though it retains diversity criteria for board directors.
Microsoft remains an outlier, still singling out 'highly qualified women and individuals from minority groups' for future CEO searches. Uber and Capital One are also among the more than 30 companies that still carry diversity criteria for directors.
The share of companies with Rooney Rule-like provisions — requiring consideration of at least one minority candidate for open positions — has fallen to 12% from 58% in the past year alone, according to George Anderson, who co-leads the North American board advisory practice at executive recruiter Spencer Stuart.
The pullback accelerated as the Trump administration moved to dismantle DEI programs across federal agencies, universities, and government contractors. Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, framed the shift as corrective: boards should still seek out Black and female candidates, he said, but without explicit criteria or pay incentives that could cause one group to receive less consideration than another.
Meanwhile, companies navigating economic uncertainty are increasingly turning to former CEOs for board seats — a pool still dominated by White men. Former CEOs accounted for 37% of new directors at S&P 500 companies this year, the highest share since a 42% peak in 2012, per Spencer Stuart. Women made up 29% of new directors, down from 46% in 2023.
CEO Times take: What ESGAUGE's data actually documents is a correction, not a collapse. For years, explicit DEI criteria in board governance introduced a structural preference that, by definition, ranked identity alongside — or ahead of — competence and fiduciary fit. Free enterprise runs on merit and accountability to shareholders, not on demographic scorecards embedded in proxy statements. The fact that 61 of America's largest companies removed this language without triggering investor revolt or earnings damage is itself a market signal. Capital rewards clear rules and equal standards. The boardroom is returning to both.
