ANSYS adds two women to its board
ANSYS has expanded its board of directors by 20 percent while tripling the number of women serving on it.
The Southpointe-based public company, a global provider of engineering simulation software, announced Thursday it added two directors to what had been a board of eight. Both newcomers are women: Nicole Anasenes and Glenda Dorchak.
Barbara V. Scherer was already a director, meaning women now comprise 30 percent of the 10-member ANSYS board.
Women have been making strides in the corporate boardroom but remain in the minority there. The website catalyst.org reported Credit Suisse – a Swiss investment bank and financial services company – found among 3,000 global companies, women held 14.7 board seats in 2015. That was a 54 percent increase from 2010.
Also in 2015, catalyst.com did a survey of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies in the United States. It showed women held 19.9 percent of board seats; 2.8 percent of those boards had zero women; and 24.6 percent had just one.
Ronald W. Hovsepian, lead independent director of ANSYS, praised the incoming directors. He said in a prepared statement: “Nicole brings valuable finance and operations expertise, while Glenda brings tremendous technology and governance expertise to our board.”
Anasenes will be on ANSYS’s audit committee. She currently is chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Squarespace, a New York City software firm.
Dorchak will join the compensation committee. She held a number of management jobs during a 22-year career at IBM.
James E. Cashman III is chairman of the ANSYS board, which – in addition to the aforementioned directors – features Ajei S. Gopal (president and chief executive officer), Guy Dubois, Alec Gallimore, Bill McDermott and Michael Thurk.