Purpose The purpose of the paper is to analyse the gender and geographic diversity of the decentralised leadership of global oral health organisations.

Methodology Publicly available data were accessed on the gender and location of the decentralised leadership across the International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR), World Dental Federation (FDI) and International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH). Gender was allocated from photographs if available on the organisation websites and other online profiles, and using Genderize, an online allocation platform.

Findings This analysis shows positive findings on gender diversity of the decentralised leadership, across the organisations. The most senior leadership roles (Presidents) are more likely to be male except for the IADR Scientific Groups and Networks (SGN) where more than half are female. Geographic diversity where relevant is less diverse, with the majority of leaders from high-income countries in North America and Europe. This is illustrated by the senior leadership roles in SGNs being almost exclusively from these same two continents.

Originality/value The decentralised leadership is gender diverse, but senior roles and some groups are male dominated. Decentralised leaders are from high-income countries in the Global North. There is an urgent need to implement strategies to address equity, diversity and inclusivity in the decentralised leadership. A lack of diversity here means that central leadership will continue to lack diversity.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

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I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

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All data analysed are publicly available, on the websites of the global oral health organisations and on individual online profiles.