- NASDAQ’s proposal for more diversity (one female and one ethnic/LGBTQ+ member) was approved by the SEC in 2021
- Knightscope’s board of directors includes CEO and Chairman of the Board William Santana Li and six female independent directors
- The company’s autonomous security robots provide 24/7/365 security by observing, recording and reporting through the Knightscope Security Operations Center interface
California was the first state to pass a law to require more diversity on corporate boards. The law, passed in 2019, requires that board members of publicly-held California-based companies have at least one female director by the end of 2019 and three by the end of 2021. In addition, the inclusion of “underrepresented populations” is also a requirement, with anyone found in violation risking a fine of $300,000.
Since then, other states have followed in California’s footsteps, including Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois – which only requires the disclosure of female and minority board members. The approach was also implemented worldwide, with countries such as Iceland, Norway, Israel, Italy, France, Belgium, and Finland all requiring quotas for female board members that range from 33 to 50 percent (https://ibn.fm/St222).
In August 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved NASDAQ’s proposal to boost the number of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ people on the corporate boards of U.S. companies. The new policy will require that boards have at least one woman and one minority/LGBTQ+ individual on the board, and companies will need to disclose these statistics publicly. Those with less than five governing board members will only be required one diverse member on the board. Although NASDAQ will not delist those companies that do not comply, they will require them to explain why they have not upheld the new ruling publicly.
As of June 2020, 82.5% of directors among Fortune 500 company boards were white, according to a study by the Alliance of Board Diversity and consulting firm Deloitte. The number of racial minorities in these companies only rose by 1% between 2018 and 2020 – but the number of women in these companies rose 4%, totaling 26.5%. Between July 2020 and May 2021, 32% of newly elected board members in the S&P 500 were black, up 11% from the previous year, based on an analysis by ISS Corporate Solutions (https://ibn.fm/d8t9c).
One California company has been disrupting the boundaries of traditional governance boards since becoming public at the end of January. Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP) is a developer of advanced physical security technologies utilizing fully autonomous security robots (“ASRs”). The company has six independent directors listed on its board – all of them women, which makes up 86% of the entire board, and 43% of the board is a minority (African-American, Latin, Asian).
Headed by Chairman and CEO William Santana Li (who is half Latin and half Asian), Knightscope’s 100% diverse board includes:
- Kristi Ross – Co-Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and President of tastytrade, Inc.
- Linda Keene Solomon – Chief Executive Officer of Wellspring Solutions, Inc.
- Jackeline V. Hernandez Fentanez – Founding member of Plug and Play
- Patricia “Patty” L. Watkins – Managing Partner of M.O.R.E. SALES Advisors
- Patricia “Trish” Howell – Vice President of Manufacturing for Avail Medsystems, Inc.; Audit Committee Chair, and Independent Director of CVR Medical
- Suzanne Muchin – Clinical Associate Professor at Kellogg School of Management; Co-Founder and CEO of Bonfire
You can learn more about the Knightscope Board at www.Knightscope.com/board
Knightscope’s advanced physical security technologies offer a range of industries a new and efficient approach to security – fully autonomous security robots (“ASRs”). These ASRs provide 24/7/365 security by observing, recording and reporting through the Knightscope Security Operations Center (“KSOC”) user interface. The KSOC provides real-time access to data that features a 360-degree eye-level HD video stream, people detection, facial recognition, automatic license plate recognition, thermal anomaly detection, and automatic signal detection. Three ASR models are available at the time – K1 stationary machine, K3 indoor machine, and K5 outdoor machine – and each of them comes with the KSOC software required for control and interaction. The technology is offered on a cost-effective Machine-as-a-Service (“MaaS”) business model driving a recurring revenue stream addressing the recurring societal problem of crime.
For more information about Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP), visit the company’s website at www.Knightscope.com, and if you have a need for the subscription-based physical security service, you may request a private demonstration of the technology at www.Knightscope.com/demo.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to KSCP are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/KSCP
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