Recent headlines have been filled with the news from Davos that effective July 1, 2020 Goldman Sachs will not underwrite companies that do not have at least one diverse board member.  They plan to raise the target to two diverse board members starting in 2021.  With four seats on its eleven member board held by women and a Lead Director who is Nigerian, Goldman is an example of board diversity and its Chairman and CEO, David Solomon, sees that diversity as a reason that his board is a successful one.  Goldman is in the top echelon of investment banks and, although relatively few issuers go public each year and only a small subset are taken public by Goldman, this move makes a statement of which emerging companies should take note.  In addition, other investment banks may be looking to Goldman's lead and consider adopting similar policies in the future.

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