On December 30, 2019, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law Senate Bill 4278 (Chapter 747) which enacts the “women on corporate boards study.” The legislation requires the New York State Department of State, in collaboration with the Department of Taxation and Finance, to conduct a study on the number of women directors who serve on each board of directors of domestic and foreign corporations authorized to do business in New York. In addition to the number of women directors serving, the study will also include the total number of directors that constitute the board of each corporation, an analysis of the change in number of women directors from previous years, and the aggregate percentage of women directors on all such boards of directors.
The information will be collected as part of the corporation’s filing statement required by the Business Corporation Law (subdivisions 1 and 8 of section 408), as well as any other available information the department of state deems relevant. The law requires the department of state to publish the report on or before February 1, 2022, and every four years thereafter. A copy of the report will be posted on the Department of State’s website, while additional copies will be furnished to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly. The bill text can be read online here.