Real Estate Trusts Lag Behind in Race Diversity as Legacy Rules
- REIT boards have fewer people of color than broader S&P 500
- Industry seen as built on networks ‘closed’ to Black people
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Public real-estate investment companies lag behind members of the broader S&P 500 Index in board-level racial diversity, remaining one of the industries most difficult for African Americans to enter and succeed in.
The boards of 30 real estate investment trusts in the S&P 500 have only 11% people of color, compared with about 20% for S&P 500 companies overall, according to a report by professional-services company Ferguson Partners. And in the past year, only 15% of the trusts added any minority directors, versus 23% for all S&P 500 companies.