A man has replaced Baroness Ford as the chairman of Grainger, breaking up the first all-female board of a FTSE company.

The 30% Club, which is campaigning to achieve 30 per cent female representation in boardrooms, hailed a “breakthrough” when Grainger, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, became the first FTSE company to appoint women to its three most senior board positions in October 2015.

Over a year ago Vanessa Simms became the group finance director, joining the chief executive Helen Gordon. Meanwhile, the residential landlord’s board was chaired by Baroness Ford.

However, on Wednesday the company said that Baroness Ford will be retiring after serving a full nine years – the last two in the role of non-executive chairman.

She will be replaced next month by Mark Clare, the former executive of blue-chip housebuilder Barratt.

(Statista (Statista)

Helen Gordon, chief executive of Grainger said Ms Ford had been “instrumental in identifying the need for a step change” in the company’s strategic direction.

Efforts to appoint more women to the boards of Britain’s biggest companies have stalled, according to the Female FTSE Board Report.

While blue-chip FTSE 100 companies met a voluntary target of 25 per cent in October 2015 – up from 23.5 per cent in March 2015 – the proportion has not increased since then.

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A review, chaired by Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, said the UK’s corporate governance code should be amended so that all FTSE 350 companies disclose their gender balance in their annual reports and accounts.