Report: Waters Corp. among top 10 Mass. firms for gender diversity in leadership

Photo | Courtesy of Waters Corp. Milford-based Waters Corp. announced a partnership with the University of Minnesota to advance the science of plant-based proteins.

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By Isabel Tehan

Milford life sciences equipment manufacturer Waters Corp. is among the top 10 companies in the state for gender diversity in executive leadership, according to the Breaking Through to the Top report from the Boston-based Eos Foundation, which highlighted four other Central Massachusetts firms as well.

To make the top 10, companies are ranked on rigorous formula looking at their representation of women as CEOs, CFOs, most highly-paid executives, and members of the executive leadership teams.

Joining Waters in the top 10 were:

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, in Boston
HubSpot, in Cambridge
Blueprint Medicines, in Cambridge
Lantheus Holdings, in Billerica
Bright Horizons, in Newton
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, in Cambridge
Axcelis Technologies, in Beverly
Charles River Laboratories, in Wilmington
Moderna, in Cambridge

The report examined the 75 largest public companies in Massachusetts by market capitalization, and highlighted those making strides for women’s leadership across the executive level as well as the board of directors.

Looking strictly at gender diversity among the board of directors, the report put Central Massachusetts firms TJX Cos., Inc. in Framingham, Hologic in Marlborough, Insulet Corp. in Acton, and The Hanover Insurance Group in Worcester in the top 10.

The report found that across the 75 companies, women occupied 20% of the launch-pad positions to becoming CEO, defined as chief operating officer, president, or division head; but only 8% of CEOs are women, up from 4% in the 2019 version of the report.

“The pace of change remains far too slow. Most troubling, we continue to find a substantial glass ceiling where women climb to the launch positions to the CEO’s office, only to see their numbers plummet in assuming the role itself. The small number of women CEOs cannot be explained as merely a pipeline problem,” Andrea Silbert, president of the Eos foundation, wrote in the report’s preface.

Only six women are CEOs among any of the 75 companies included in the report, and none are in Central Massachusetts.