[On August 30, 2020], the California Legislature passed a bill that requires diversity on corporate boards in California. The legislation, AB 979, is joint authored by Assemblymembers Chris Holden, Cristina Garcia, and David Chiu, with Eloise Gomez Reyes as principal co-author. The bill requires publicly held corporations headquartered in California to have at least one director from an underrepresented community by the close of 2021.
“Today, the legislature showed that we can bring solutions to create equity in society,” said Assemblymember Chris Holden.
“The lack of diversity on California’s boards and upper level corporate positions is a challenge we urged corporations to address on their own during our time in the Legislature. However, it is clear we can no longer wait for corporations to figure it out on their own. By ensuring diversity on their boards, we know the corporations are more likely to both create opportunities for people of color and give them the support to thrive within that corporation,” said Assemblymember Cristina Garcia.
Read entire press release here.
