Shareholders push for more board diversity at Tesla, Google, Wells Fargo and Home Depot

After California law mandating diverse directors was struck down, shareholders will vote on proposals that call for companies to establish boards that resemble their customer base.

By Levi Sumagaysay, April 26, 2022

A law mandating corporate board diversity for publicly traded companies based in California was recently ruled unconstitutional, but pressure to diversify boards isn’t just coming from lawmakers.

Two large California-based companies, Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, 1.36% GOOGL, 1.19% and Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, 1.94%, are facing first-of-their-kind calls from shareholders to diversify their boards even further. Wells Fargo shareholders will vote on a resolution Tuesday, while Alphabet shareholders will vote on a similar resolution at the company’s annual general meeting on June 1.

The same investment manager, Arjuna Capital, put forth both proposals, and this week targeted a third company with a similar resolution: Tesla Inc. TSLA, 1.45%. The electric-vehicle maker, which was started in California before moving its headquarters to Texas, will hold its next annual general meeting in the fall.

Arjuna Capital says in its resolutions that the board diversity of each of the companies is “largely disproportionate” from their customer base, and is urging them to report what they’re doing each year to address that.

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