Board diversity has emerged as one of the leading governance themes worldwide. Prior research has identified that diverse directors often have less access to firm specific information compared to their non-diverse peers. These findings, however, are based on binary indicators of diversity rather than considering diversity as a function of a multitude of related facets dependent on the context in which individuals operate. We find that the information disparity between diverse directors and their peers is better explained by our aggregate measure of the distance. Directors who are more different from their peers in the context of the board realize lower abnormal returns when purchasing shares, are less likely to trade together with their peers and are more likely to be alerted to important information through public disclosure of their peers transactions. Our results offer a viable pathway to integrating traditionally diverse directors in existing boards and fully realizing the benefits of diversity by carefully considering the overlap between a diverse directors other characteristics and those of their peers.