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The end of 2021 marked a significant time for public companies in California as they faced increased requirements around diversity on their corporate boards. Between the California law requiring an increased number of female and underrepresented directors and Nasdaq implementing diversity mandates for its listed companies, there were a number of new requirements and deadlines for public companies to manage before the year ended. And the race is not over yet as diversity requirements will continue through 2022 with additional stipulations. How have public companies fared in the rally for compliance and has it been a successful endeavor? How will companies continue to juggle requirements in the months and years ahead? This session will examine how 2021 ended up for public companies and what the 2022 forecast will be for diversity compliance.

SPEAKERS

SIMONE LAGOMARSINO

Simone Lagomarsino serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Luther Burbank Savings and Luther Burbank Corporation. She leads the Executive Committee and is a member of Luther Burbank Corporation’s board of directors. Prior to joining in 2019, Ms. Lagomarsino served as President and CEO of the Western Bankers Association and as a director of Pacific Premier Bancorp; from 2011 to 2017 she served as CEO of Heritage Oaks Bank and as President and CEO of Heritage Oaks Bancorp; previous to that she held executive positions with City National Bank, Hawthorne Savings, Kinecta Federal Credit Union, Ventura County National Bank and Warner Center Bank. Ms. Lagomarsino is regularly honored in financial services industry organizations and publications and in 2013 was named by American Banker as Community Banker of the Year.

In addition to her role at Luther Burbank, Ms. Lagomarsino serves as Chair of the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and on the boards of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and of Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. Ms. Lagomarsino holds an M.B.A in Finance from Claremont Graduate University and a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

JACKIE LIU

Jackie Liu is Partner at Morrison & Foerster. Jackie engages in a general corporate and transactional practice, with special emphasis on corporate counseling of public companies, mergers and acquisitions, and the China practice.  She has more than 20 years of experience in advising public companies on corporate governance matters, including director and officer fiduciary duties, board “best practices,” disagreements between board and management, succession planning, investor relations, and advises boards and special committees in connection with conflicts of interest matters, proxy contests and other corporate control efforts. Jackie is outside general counsel to a number of public companies with whom she has worked for over 20 years and provides bigpicture, critical value-adding strategic advice. She also counsels public companies on disclosure matters and associated liability considerations. Jackie has lectured at seminars and conferences and written articles on various corporate governance and securities law matters.

Jackie also represents a number of public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, from small asset acquisitions and divestitures, founder-driven sales and talent acquisitions to complex multibillion-dollar transactions. In addition, she has been involved in a number of complex cross-border transactions in Asia, Australia and Europe. Her knowledge of U.S. SEC-reporting requirements is a valuable addition to counseling on public-company M&A transactions. She additionally works with a number of well-established Chinese companies in setting up U.S. subsidiaries and counseling them on strategic matters relating to their U.S. operations.

Jackie formerly served as co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Global Corporate Department of over 400 lawyers.

In 2018, Jackie received the Client Choice Award from International Law Office/Lexology for excellent client care and quality of service in the practice of corporate law. She was named the 2013 Legal Advisor of the Year by M&A Advisor. She was also recommended as a leading attorney in the field of M&A by Legal 500 USA 2014 and, in 2018, recommended for M&A/Corporate and Commercial: M&A Large Deals ($1bn+).

She was born in Shanghai, China. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

She is a member of the California State Bar and the Bar Association of San Francisco. She is a board member of the Foundation of City College of San Francisco.

During her tenure at Harvard Law School, she served as the co-editor of the Harvard Law Record.

JO-ELLEN POZNER

Jo-Ellen Pozner is Assistant Professor, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and Faculty Scholar, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Jo-Ellen joined Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business in the fall of 2016. Before that, she was on faculty at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Her research focuses on questions of organizational ethics, corporate governance, social evaluation, and social movements. She is interested in the processes through which we make sense of and evaluate others, particularly around instances of wrongdoing and scandal. The second area of interest investigates the intersection of social movements and markets, including research on movements that promoted organic food, bean-to-bar chocolate, micro-breweries, and low-power FM radio. Finally, she has a particular interest in organizational misconduct, specifically the ways in which misconduct at the organizational level impacts top management and boards of directors at the companies involved. 

Pozner graduated with a Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York University; a Masters in Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; and a BSFS in International Economics from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

F. DANIEL SICILIANO, moderator

F. Daniel Siciliano is a successful technology CEO-founder and entrepreneur, as well as Vice Chair of the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and a recognized expert in corporate strategy and governance, capital financial markets, executive compensation, and technological disruption (including fintech, AI and cybersecurity). He is currently Chairman of SVDX, board member of the Latino Corporate Directors Education Foundation, chair-elect of the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, and a fellow at Stanford University.