Abstract
In this study, we propose that the gender of the Board Chair matters in the ‘mentoring’ relationship between Board Chair and his/her CEO, and its influence on firm performance and board gender diversity. Extant literature has focused on the ‘monitoring’ role of the Board. We depart from this perspective, and draw on the work of Kram (1983) to illustrate how the antecedents of mentoring (gender, age, tenure and ethnicity) shape the relationship between Board Chair and his or her CEO. We make two propositions 1) the (quality) of the mentoring received by the CEO will be conditional on the gender of the Board Chair and 2) the gender of the Board Chair will influence board gender diversity and firm financial performance. On the whole, our study attempts to provide a solution to the longstanding challenge of having extremely few women at the apex of the Corporate.