Acevo CEO Sir Stephen Bubb has written to Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, calling for more charity CEOs to be appointed to company boards.

The letter, dated 24 January 2012, was penned in response to Cable’s proposals to curb executive pay and his plans to encourage a wider range of representation on company boards.

In it, Sir Stephen welcomed the Secretary’s proposal to create more diverse boardrooms, but says that he should "place more emphasis on the need for a variety of professional experience and expertise among executives". He singles out third sector CEOs as having skills and experience that would be of great benefit to corporate boardrooms.

However, the umbrella body CEO expresses his pessimism about the likelihood that company boardrooms will change by their own accord. Sir Stephen feels that little has changed since he was a member of the Tyson task force – set up by the then Department of Trade (now the Department of Business Innovation and Skills) in 2003 following the Higgs Report – which considered how to encourage more diversity in boardrooms.

"In the past, exhortation has failed to secure the much-needed culture change within business," he said. "Will it work on this occasion, when business has shown no willingness to make changes so far?...

“For years I and colleagues from our broad charity and social enterprise sector, full as it is of talent and expertise, have made this case only to be patronised or ignored.

“Tackling top pay abuse and securing a more engaged business sector requires new skills at the top... now is the time for concrete action and proper reform.”