Reuters, the news and information firm, has appointed two women directors just weeks after forming a diversity committee designed to avoid allegations of discrimination against minority groups. They are the first women to be appointed to the board.

Lawton Fitt, who was the first woman to be made a partner at Goldman Sachs, and Penny Hughes, former president of Coca-Cola UK, will become non-executive directors of the firm with immediate effect. The appointment of the two women comes three months after the arrival of Ken Olisa, Reuters' first board member of Afro-Caribbean origin.