By Business & Finance 
After nine years of Dame Alison Carnwath at the helm, the UK’s largest listed property developer will look for a new chair.
Land Securities (Landsec) announced today that their chair of nine years would step down.
Among the company’s impressive portfolio is the sale of the City of London’s Walkie Talkie skyscraper to Hong Kong investors for £1.3 billion.
Dame Alison Carnwath, made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2014 for services to business, has been on the company’s board for 13 years at the same time as holding board positions in Zurich and Livingbridge.
Also among her repertoire is board positions at Barclays and Man Group as well as a 20-year investment banking career.
Last year, Landsec became the first major property company in the UK to release its report on its gender pay gap, showing that women at the company are paid a third less than men, on average. Bonuses were 62.5% lower for women on average, also.
Landsec said it would improve this by having 20-30% of high-paid positions (in the top quarter of the company) filled by women by 2020.
Carnwath’s retirement comes at a time when gender equality talks are at their most forward thinking. She is one of just a handful of female FTSE 100-company leaders.
She will remain in her post until someone is found to take over.
