You’ve Been Delisted!

NASDAQ has proposed new diversity rules that would de-list any company that fails to have a certain number of diverse board members or fails to explain why it does not. Equilar is a partner in that initiative. Why is this issue so important to you?

Yeah, you and I go back a number of years, right? We were on the Asian Pacific Fund board together.

Yeah.

And there was a reason we wanted to be on that board. This is an issue that's very important to us is to have the representation for our community to look out for people in our community. You and I, both immigrants, I can't say enough, this country's been amazing, right?

Yes, absolutely.

I feel so fortunate for the Immigration Act of 1965, which gave our family the opportunity to move from Korea. So myself as an Asian American, want to do whatever we can, especially with all that's happened, in the past year, to make sure we have a seat at the table. But in the NASDAQ situation, it's not a social mission issue just to be clear about this. There's also a very strong business imperative that's driven by the investors and that there have been numerous studies showing that greater diversity leads to better economic performance.

Yes. Better ROI…Yeah.

Better ROI, better returns, all the financial metrics. And these are studies by McKinsey. It's by Morgan Stanley, by Credit Suisse, by you name it, academics. And why is that? By having like your life experiences, leaving Vietnam a literally on a boat. I mean my experience growing up as one of few Asians in New Jersey and being called every name in the book, getting beaten up walking home from school. For better or for worse, we see the world with our unique perspective and by having diversity in the board room and in leadership, we can bring that perspective, which will ultimately reduce the number of blind spots. Which ultimately leads to better decision making, which will ultimately lead to better outcomes. As you can tell, I get a little fired up about Asian American issues but also the business imperative of this. And it's just really opening up those opportunities for people from as many groups as possible.