John A. Pérez is Speaker Emeritus of the California Assembly and a Regent of the University of California. From 2019-2021, Mr. Pérez served as Chair of the Board of Regents, and is currently Chair of the Regents’ Health Services Committee. As Speaker, he had ultimate responsibility for 1300 employees and a $156 million budget. In response to the Great Recession, he crafted the California Jobs Budget, which included a ten-billion dollar private-sector job creation fund. Mr. Pérez also authored the ballot initiative creating California’s Rainy-Day Fund. As a UC Regent, he focused on ensuring UC provides an elite education without elitist barriers and ensured the cost of education at UC be affordable, equitable, and predictable. Mr. Pérez helped create the University Working Group on Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship, which is tasked with optimizing moving UC discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace. He grew up in the working-class communities of El Sereno and Highland Park. Prior to his election to the Assembly, Mr. Pérez served on the Board of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, California League of Conservation Voters, and Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Pérez has been a longtime advocate of the LGBTQ Community, and was previously appointed by both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush to serve on the President’s Commission on HIV/AIDS.