ATK.L Regulatory News (ATK)

WS Atkins plc

Board Composition

Atkins confirms its aspirations for Board composition

WS Atkins plc ("Atkins" and "the Group") has today confirmed that it aspires to have one third of its Board members as women by 2015.

In response to Lord Davies of Abersoch's call to chairmen to publish their goals, Allan Cook, chairman said, "Our Board believes in the benefits of greater gender diversity and is actively supportive of measures to achieve this without putting quotas in place. Indeed, women currently account for 22 per cent of our Board. Our focus will remain on attracting the right talent and skills irrespective of gender or ethnicity."

In its 2011 Annual Report, the Group reported its progress towards achieving greater diversity in its Board composition. Today, the Board's make-up reflects the increasing internationalisation of the Group with directors demonstrating diversity of perspective, experience, thought, gender, ethnicity and nationality.

The Board recognises that the gender imbalance among employees is an issue, as it is for many other organisations in the science, engineering, maths and technology sectors. To address this, the Board has approved action plans developed by each of the Group's regional management teams to achieve a significant difference to the gender balance at a senior level in management and technical roles. Progress will be reported each year in the Annual Report.

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Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,700 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time critical infrastructure projects.

*It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2011) and the 13th largest international design firm (Engineering News-Record 2011).

Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.