Microsoft’s (MSFT) board is getting more diverse.
The tech giant announced that it plans to add two high-profile female executives to its board, both alums of Fortune‘s list of Most Powerful Women. Sandra Peterson, Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) group worldwide chairman is #28 on this year’s rankings. Peterson heads four product segments within J&J that are collectively worth $20 billion and oversees IT and the supply chain for the entire company.
The other Microsoft nominee is Padmasree Warrior, who grew up in India and held the dual titles of chief technology officer and chief strategy officer at Cisco (CSCO) until June of this year. Prior to her role at Cisco, Warrior spent 23 years at Motorola (MSI), where she served as corporate VP and chief technology officer in its semiconductor products sector. She was reportedly approached by headhunters during Twitter’s search for a new CEO when former chief Dick Costolo departed. Though she certainly knows the product—Warrior has 1.63 million Twitter followers—the company named its co-founder Jack Dorsey permanent CEO earlier this month.
Both Peterson and Warrior have experience on major corporate boards: Peterson currently serves on the board of data company Dun & Bradstreet (DNB), and Warrior is on the boards of retailer Gap Inc. (GPS) and cloud-storage company Box.
“Sandra and Padmasree both offer strong technology expertise and business experience that will serve as valuable additions to the board,” said John Thompson, Microsoft’s independent board chairman and former CEO of Symantec (SYMC), in a statement.
Peterson and Warrior will be presented for election at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in December. If they are both elected, Microsoft’s board will have 11 total board members, three of whom will be women. The third woman is Teri L. List-Stoll, EVP and CFO of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS).
Overall, Microsoft’s workforce is 27.5% female, though this percentage shrinks to 17.4% at the leadership level and to 16.7% for technical roles, based on data from the company’s website. According to Fortune‘s analysis of the demographic data of 14 of the biggest tech companies, which included heavy-hitters such as Facebook, Intel, and and Google, Microsoft ranks as one of the least gender-diverse.
In the same announcement, Microsoft also shared the news that Dr. Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College, will not seek re-election and will leave the board at the end of her term in December.
