Bringing fresh perspectives to boardrooms by promoting diversity in gender, race, culture and age has become vital to companies struggling to recover from the global economic crisis, a key U.S. advocate for women's leadership says.
Beth Brooke, global vice chairwoman of accounting giant Ernst & Young, who has been named three times by Forbes magazine as one of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, said during a recent trip to Tokyo that business success today hinges on the ability to develop diverse teams and get the most out of them.
"I really do believe that cultural diversity or diversity more generally is a very important key to re-creating the global economy," she told a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.