December 31, 2020
As a personal investor with more than two decades of investing experience, concerned with the economic stability of my household and others, I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed rule SR-NASDAQ-2020-081 and urge you to deny the rule change.
The mission of the Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets and facilitate capital formation (1). SR-NASDAQ-2020-081 contradicts each element of the SEC mission.
This proposed rule seeks to apply arbitrary demographic quotas to boards rather than seeking the best qualified candidate, without regard to race, ethnicity or demographics. The best qualified candidate regardless of demographic category will protect investors and facilitate capital formation in support of the stated mission of the SEC. Furthermore, the selection of board members based on race, ethnicity or other demographic category over the best qualified candidate devalues all other races, ethnicities and demographic categories disrupting a fair market. Finally, SR-NASDAQ-2020-081 introduces the need for additional services to seek candidates to fill the demographic quota rather than best qualified candidate (as proposed in SR-NASDAQ-2020-082) reducing the order and efficiency of markets the SEC was created to promote.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposed rule. I once again urge you to deny this rule change that you may further the Securities and Exchange Commissions stated goals of protecting investors maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets and facilitating capital formation (1).
Sincerely,
Matthew Glen
1 What We Do. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/about/what-we-do. Accessed 31 December 2020.