A high-ranking member of the state Secretary of State’s Office has testified that no corporations have been fined for noncompliance since a law went into effect in 2018 requiring more women on corporate boards.
In response to calls for more diversity among corporate leaders in America, Assemblymembers Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) have co-sponsored AB 979. The legislation requires publicly held corporations headquartered in California to have at least one member on their board of directors from an under-represented community by the end of 2021. The bill defines under-represented groups as “Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native.” AB 979 also requires that California-based public corporations with more than four but fewer than nine directors to have at least two directors from under-represented communities, and corporations with nine or more directors to have at least three from under-represented