Do listed SEA tech firms have a board diversity problem?

Tech startups are always closely associated with their founders. Think Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg or Amazon and Jeff Bezos. These associations remain even after a founder is no longer CEO, as with Bill Gates and Microsoft. 

As companies mature and go public, governance structures need to change too. While founders may stay in charge of a listed company, they now share governance responsibilities with a board of directors elected by shareholders. 

Directors are either senior executives (typically the founders, if they are still involved with the firm), such as the CEO and CFO, or non-executives who are either distinguished professionals or represent an investor with a significant stake. 

For example, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is on Grab’s board because Uber owns 14% of the Southeast Asian super app. 

A company’s board does not run the company but helps the company set goals and supports senior management in the pursuit of those goals. It makes certain key decisions, including those on M&As, senior hires, and incentives. 

But despite the important role boards play in the governance and performance of a company, little attention is paid to the people who sit on them. 

SEA tech companies tends to have smaller boards  

A number of Southeast Asian tech companies have gone public in the past year: Indonesia’s Bukalapak kicked things off in August 2021 while peer GoTo Group bookended the trend in April this year. These firms joined Sea Group, which went public five years ago and remains the most valuable SEA-focused tech company, even though its share price has fallen more than 80% over the past year.

So who are the individuals on the boards of some of Southeast Asians biggest public tech companies (or the “SEA 6”)? We dive deeper into their profiles below. 

Some of these boards have seen changes recently. Yuxin Ren resigned from Sea’s board last month. Ren was Tencent’s representative on the board, and his resignation is in line with the Chinese tech company’s move to sell down its stake in Sea. 

Meanwhile, at Bukalapak, Zhang Lu resigned from the board of commissioners last month. Zhang represented Bukalapak’s investor, Ant Group, and will be replaced by another Ant director at Bukalapak’s next shareholders general meeting. 

(Note that in Indonesia, the board of commissioners is the equivalent of a board of directors in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, what Indonesian companies call “board of directors” is the equivalent of a company’s management team.) 

See also: Former public officials joining tech companies: a rising trend in Indonesia

The size of each company’s board ranges from three directors (Bukalapak) to nine directors (PropertyGuru), with an average of around six directors. This is a relatively small number, especially compared with that of US-based tech companies. For example, the six largest US tech companies (US 6) by market capitalization – Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla and Meta – have an average board size of 10 directors. 

In comparison, the top six most valuable Chinese tech companies (China 6) – Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, JD, Pinduoduo and Netease – have an average of eight directors on their boards. 

Lack of gender diversity 

‘Hard’ degrees dominate 

Wanted: directors with varied work experience