Mary A.Winston & Ray M. Robinson For Being Recognized On The 2017 Black Enterprise Registry Of Corporate Directors.

All of us at Acuity Brands thank you for your contributions to our success and the positive impact you have made throughout your distinguished career.

Acuity Brands, Inc. is the North American market leader and one of the world’s leading providers of lighting and building management solutions. With fiscal year 2016 net sales of $3.3 billion, Acuity Brands currently employs approximately 12,000 associates and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with operations throughout North America, and in Europe and Asia. The Company’s products and solutions are sold under various brands, including Lithonia Lighting®, Holophane®, Peerless®, Gotham®, Mark Architectural Lighting™, Winona® Lighting, Juno®, Indy(tm), Aculux®, Healthcare Lighting®, Hydrel®, American Electric Lighting®, Carandini®, Antique Street Lamps™, Sunoptics®, Distech Controls®, Acuity Controls™, nLight®, ROAM®, Sensor Switch® and Atrius™. Visit us www.acuitybrands.com.

FOR FIVE YEARS NOW, BLACK ENTERPRISE HAS been chronicling African Americans who serve on the boards of directors of America’s largest publicly traded corporations. This year we’ve expanded the universe of companies from the top 300 companies listed on the Standard & Poor’s 500 to the full S&P 500 to gain a more complete picture of corporate America’s performance when it to comes to diversity at the highest level. In fact, we have dedicated the next 19 pages to this examination.

So why should you or the average person care about the 292 blacks sitting on the boards of 303 companies? Or about the 197 companies who have boards without a single black director? The answer is simple: The decisions made in these boardrooms affect us all. Based on the guidance these directors provide to CEOs and senior management, the entire black community stands to gain—or lose.