Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Google. Today's Tuesday,

December 1st. Blackberry stock is up, oil prices are down, and we're focused on new diversity

rules for corporate America. Earlier today, the NASDAQ said that it's asked federal regulators to approve new listing rules

that would require its companies to regularly report on the demographic diversity of their

boards of directors and also comply with new board diversity requirements.

Here's how it would work.

NASDAQ listed companies would have one year to begin reporting on their board diversity,

including things like self-identified gender, race, and sexual orientation.

Those companies then would have two years to make sure they have at least one woman

plus one quote unquote diverse director, while larger companies would have a bit more time.

If any of the NASDAQ's 3,000 plus companies fail to meet these requirements by the deadline,

they could face delisting. Well, again, assuming the Securities and Exchange Commission signs off on the plan.

The basic idea here is that more diverse boards can lead to better

corporate governance and sometimes even better financial performance. And NASDAQ is not alone here.

Its effort is kind of reminiscent of recent regulations put into place in California,

whereby listed companies there are required to have more gender and underrepresented minority representation on their

boards of directors. Plus, it's also a bit reminiscent of what Goldman Sachs just did,

saying that they will only help companies go public if those companies have at least one

woman or underrepresented minority director. So we want to go deeper with NASDAQ senior

vice president Jeff Thomas to better understand why NASDAQ's senior vice president Jeff Thomas to better

understand why NASDAQ is enacting this policy and the internal discussions that led to it.

That conversation in 15 seconds.

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