Cid Wilson - Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility CEO and President, joins Yahoo Fianace, to discuss the capitol riot reaction and corporations and the future of political donations.

Video Transcript

- A number of companies pausing their political donations in the wake of the riots on Capitol Hill. For more on this, we want to bring in CId Wilson. He's the CEO and President of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility.

And Cid, great to have you on the program this afternoon. Taking a look at the role and influence of corporations here, I want to take it a little bit, or I guess a step further, with you and ask you, how do you think corporations can help stop the spread of disinformation that could ultimately lead to the violence like what we saw just two weeks ago?

CID WILSON: Well, thanks, and thanks to bring me back, and a few things. One is that this has been a continuing trend, as corporations get increasingly involved in public affairs because of what kind of environment we've had over these last four years, where diversity and inclusion has really been under attack by the Trump administration.

And so when you're looking at how the elections, which were clearly Joe Biden had won that election, and the behaviors for a few of the members of Congress, there's growing pressure by employees at these companies to hold their own corporations accountable, as well as customers and organizations that are doing the same.

And so I do commend many of the companies who made the decision that any Senator who opposed the certification of the electoral college will no longer get any of their political action committee support. This doesn't mean that they're not supporting both sides of the aisle. But those individuals who challenged a clearly won election by Joe Biden I think are there, so yes.

- Cid? Cid? Let me ask you, is Goya Foods part of the HACR? I don't mean to single them out. Simply I want to use them as an example. Are they part of HACR. So they're not officially a member of HACR, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. I do know Robert Unanue a and many of the key leaders at I Goya foods. And naturally, we monitor what's been happening over the last couple of years.

- I grew up on Goya products, South Florida, it was Diana Black Beans for years. Then it was Goya. I love Goya products. Here's the deal. Bob Unanue got into a lot of trouble with Democrats. And the company has traditionally donated to Republicans.

Now I don't know if they're going to keep donating. But these other companies that have pulled back their political donations, do you think they're going to stick to that three months from now? Or are they all going to quietly start to donate again?

CID WILSON: That's a good question, because I think the feeling is, is that those senators and members of Congress that were deeply involved in and a lot of this misinformation are going to want to paint some level of consequence. As to how long that will take, that really depends. I don't know whether that will be a permanent arrangement. But I do think that some of them may go quite a while before they receive any kind of support.

- Cid, I want to pivot the conversation a little bit here and talk about the NASDAQ, because on Yahoo Finance, we've talked about the fact that they've recently added a new rule. And they're doing this in an effort to make corporate boards more diverse.

And it remains a subject to SEC approval. But now we have Biden appointing Gary Gensler as the head of SEC. If he is approved here in that position, I guess, what are your hopes for that the Biden administration will focus on, and do you think that the administration is going to be able to effectively address this issue?

CID WILSON: Well, if you look at the history of Gary Gensler, he was a Clinton appointee, then of course, was appointed by President Obama and someone who recognizes that there needs to be accountability in corporate America, particularly for companies that are publicly traded on how they select their corporate boards.

The biggest challenge that we at the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility deal with is companies who are selecting their board members, not based on qualification, but based on who they know. And unfortunately if you're in a circle that is not diverse, you're going to wind up nominating individuals that are not diverse.

So I think that Gary Gensler is more likely to support not only the letter that NASDAQ had sent, but we supported that initiative by NASDAQ that would call for all publicly traded companies to have mandated diversity on their corporate boards.

- Cid Wilson, Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility CEO and President. Thanks for taking the time.

CID WILSON: Thank you. Great to be here.