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Nasdaq Shuts Boardroom Doors on the Disabled

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Disabled Investment Manager Protests Nasdaq's Failure on Board Diversity

Nasdaq’s failure to mention the Rehab Act, ADA, or any other prominent civil rights legislation affecting the disabled even once in its 274-page document is beyond disappointing”
— Luka Erceg
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, April 9, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Dynamique Capital Advisors’ investment manager, Luka Erceg, sent a letter today to Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) requesting that the Nasdaq Stock Exchange’s proposed amendment to its rules encouraging diversity on the boards of listed companies be rejected until further amended to include and recognize disabled persons as an underrepresented community and minority in the United States.

As a Disability Owned Business Enterprise (DOBE), Dynamique and its investment manager Luka Erceg recognize the importance of diversity in the U.S. and its markets. Inequality and discrimination in America exist at many levels, and Nasdaq’s move to diversify the boardrooms of publicly traded companies to include individuals that self-identify as a female, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, two or more races or ethnicities, or as LGBTQ+ is long-overdue.

However, with 61 million persons living with a disability in the United States, the disabled represent the largest underrepresented community of all minorities. Excluding the disabled from the boardrooms of publicly traded companies does not honor the sacrifices of service-disabled veterans or the importance of disability in our economy and society as a whole. As has previously been reported to Congress by the National Council on Disability, persons with disabilities are vastly underrepresented in the fastest occupations in the economy and are overrepresented in the occupations with the fastest rates of decline. Thus, the SEC should not permit self-regulating organizations, such as our stock market exchanges, to use Federal securities laws to discriminate against our most vulnerable citizens.

Mr. Erceg stated “[o]ur culture is deeply fearful and stereotypical of the disabled as damaged or defective and rules like Nasdaq’s proposed rule only perpetuate those myths, and as a disabled person, I can attest to and support with data the ostracization that has created the negative and inaccurate beliefs and attitudes about disability.” Thus, in the United States twice as many people with disabilities live in poverty and less than 30% of working age disabled persons in the U.S. participate in the workforce.

Following President Biden’s executive order on equality issued on January 20, 2021, the SEC as a Federal agency should recognize persons with disabilities as an underrepresented minority that is discriminated against and “to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity.” “Discrimination against any group constitutes abhorrent behavior, perpetuating discrimination like Nasdaq does is worse,” said Erceg.

The full text of Mr. Erceg’s letter to Acting Chair Lee can be found at:

http://link.dynamique.com/20210408SEC

About Dynamique

Based in San Diego, CA, Dynamique is a trusted investment manager for individuals, entrepreneurs, companies, endowments, pension plans, and others who are seeking long term financial security and wish to use wholistic financial, legal, tax, and strategy resources to make their lives and those of others more meaningful and productive. As a registered investment advisor, Dynamique supports its clients with 401k, 403b, and other pension and retirement planning services, and offers single-asset, to complex asset investment strategies, including the opportunity to meet disability-minority driven investment mandates for institutional investors.

About Luka Erceg

Luka Erceg is a Canadian-born, American entrepreneur who is engaged in investment management, and he has focused on sustainable/clean tech ventures, turnarounds and restructurings of distressed assets and investments. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the South Texas College of Law, Master of Laws from the University of Houston Law Center, Master of Business Administration from Rice University, Bachelor of Marketing from the University of Guelph, is a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (C.I.R.A.) through the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (AIRA), a Certified Turnaround Professional (C.T.P.) with the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), and he holds various FINRA designations.

Luka has served on the boards of multiple privately held companies, and today serves on the Board of Barrier Free Living NYC. Barrier Free Living is nationally recognized as the first fully accessible emergency shelter for survivors of domestic violence with disabilities.

If you or your company would like to explore investment management opportunities while supporting a disabled-minority manager, or if you are in need of diversity on your board, please contact Luka.

Luka Erceg
Dynamique Capital Advisors, LLC
+1 858-947-4260
media@dynamique.com
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