California Assemblymember Chris Holden has authored a bill that would require the University of California to conduct a study of the racial and ethnic diversity of the board of directors and employees of California high technology companies.  The bill, AB 2819, would define a "California high technology company” as a publicly traded company whose primary trade or business is either software development or computational hardware that has a business location in this state and has more than 1,000 employees in California.

The bill is curiously inconsistent in what the study should cover.  For example, it would information on the number of people employed in the high technology industry by "race or ethnicity" and gender but would require information only as to the race and gender of The of people employed by the high technology industry as executives, senior officials, or managers categorized by race and gender but not ethnicity.  The bill doesn't define what constitutes a "senior official" or "manager".  It also provides not clue as to how the university is to determine racial, gender and ethnic classifications.

The bill requires a "biannual" report, a term that generally refers to twice a year.  However, I suspect that the author intends a "biennial" report (i.e., every two years).  

For more on pending California diversity legislation see:  Legislature Mulls Mandating Board Interviews Of Everyone But Nonbinary Persons And Caucasian Males; Bill Would Require Race And Gender Pay Equity Reports; California Gender Equity Quota Bill Advances; Bill Aims At Prohibiting Public Pension Fund Investments In Alternative Investment Vehicles Lacking Race And Gender Pay Equity Policies; and California Bill Would Mandate Gender Quotas For Publicly Traded Companies.