Gwen King recounts her career journey from French teacher to various government roles, including Deputy Assistant to President Reagan, Commissioner of Social Security, and senior executive roles at Philadelphia Electric Company and Lockheed Martin. She first joined a corporate board at Martin Marietta in the 1990s at the invitation of the CEO, starting a three-decade tenure serving on numerous boards.
She acknowledges lacking business knowledge early on but worked diligently to learn, while pushing the companies to add board glossaries. Though not initially aspiring to boards, she came to see their value for providing diverse perspectives. King stresses the importance of self-awareness – knowing one’s expertise and limitations. This enabled her to take on appropriate committee leadership roles. Her communications strength proved useful in constructively engaging activist shareholders.
Though not seeing major gains in Black board representation in the next few years, due to societal pushback, she believes qualified Black executives can meaningfully contribute if welcomed genuinely, not as tokens. While some search firms are committed to diversity, accountability is needed regarding which firms conduct searches yielding non-diverse boards. Term limits and board enlargement may help, but progress ultimately relies on CEO and company commitment.
She urges Black director candidates to reflect carefully on their motivations and potential impact before accepting board seats, to avoid non-substantive roles. Mentoring through organizations like the Executive Leadership Council is also key.
