Goldman to refuse listings if all directors are white, straight men

The era of the white, all-male board is coming to an end.

Goldman Sachs Group CEO David Solomon issued the latest ultimatum on Thursday from Davos. Wall Street’s biggest underwriter of initial public offerings in the US will no longer take a firm public in the US and Europe if it lacks a director who is either female or diverse.

The mandate is the latest in a series of signals that non-diverse boards and management are unacceptable. BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors are voting against directors at companies without a female director. Public companies with all-male boards based in California now