Exclusive-Norway’s wealth fund pushes for more women on emerging market company boards

Norway's $1.6 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, will call on emerging market companies in which it invests to appoint more women to their boards, top officials told Reuters, making the policy global for the first time. The policy will now be applied to companies in emerging markets, including from nations such as India, South Africa, Brazil and Egypt, the fund said in its updated voting guidelines shared with Reuters ahead of their publication on Wednesday. The fund's push could be a challenge in countries where the pool of candidates is smaller than in the developed world, and comes amid some signs of a public backlash in the U.S. against the drive to bring diversity to the top of organisations.