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Ahmad Thomas: "We Made a Decision to Stand on the Side of Progress by Supporting AB-979"

Ahmad Thomas: "We Made a Decision to Stand on the Side of Progress by Supporting AB-979"

Episode 19 Published 5 years, 7 months ago
Description
  1. Start of interview [1:11]
  2. Ahmad's "origin story" [1:52]
  3. His experience as senior aide to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in Washington, D.C. (2005-2010) [4:29]
    1. TARP Programs
    2. Dodd Frank Act
  4. His experience with Barclays Investment Bank covering public sector infrastructure (2010-2020) [7:41]
    1. Led Barclays’ California and Silicon Valley regional municipal banking team.
    2. Led Barclays' public sector coverage of social impact engagements in the 13 western U.S. states.
    3. Served as a lead banker on several innovative transactions, most notably executing the first ever Social Bonds issue for a non-profit in the U.S. municipal bond market.
  5. Introduction of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1977 by David Packard of HP [11:19]
  6. Membership of the SVLG: about 360 companies. [13:39] "That's where the juice comes from. When we speak on behalf of these Silicon Valley companies, there is a real opportunity to impact positive change not only in Silicon Valley but also in corporate America."
  7. Board of SVLG "represents some of the best and brightest of Silicon Valley" [15:15]
  8. The new AB-979 California Board Diversity Legislation [16:27]
    1. Introduced by CA AssemblyMember Chris Holden.
    2. On September 30, 2020, Governor Newsom signed AB 979, which requires publicly held corporations headquartered in CA to diversify their boards of directors with directors from “underrepresented communities” by December 31, 2021.
    3. AB 979 defines “director from an underrepresented community” as “an individual who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.”
  9. "What's so significant [for SVLG] is that we made a decision to stand on the side of progress" [18:35]
  10. The precedent of SB-826 [19:13]
  11. "I'm just so proud to stand with our executives and member companies to drive some serious change in a smart and responsible manner." [20:26]
  12. What piqued his interest in corporate board diversity: "some of this is very personal" [21:29]
  13. "The statement being made [with AB-979] was one that we [SVLG] wanted to stand in line with" [24:20]
  14. "The shareholder oversight questions are extremely serious and significant for public companies, especially for tech companies" [27:30]
  15. SVLG is developing tools to help on diversity initiatives (such as a database/repository of resumes) [29:09]
  16. Impact of Black Lives Matter movement in corporate America and SVLG [30:26]
  17. "There is overwhelming research that demonstrates a clear tie between increas
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