John A. Pérez is Speaker Emeritus of the California Assembly, former Chair of the University of California Board of Regents, and recently served as Vice President of the Port of Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.
As Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Pérez had direct responsibility for 1,300 employees and a $156 million budget, and ultimate responsibility for passing the state budget, which, during Mr. Pérez's tenure, reached $179 billion. The California Legislature's responsible budgeting from 2010–2014, based on the blueprint established by Mr. Pérez, helped California grow from the world's seventh largest economy to the world's fourth. In response to the Great Recession, Mr. Pérez crafted the California Jobs Budget, which included a $10 billion private-sector job creation fund. Mr. Pérez also authored the ballot initiative creating California's Rainy-Day Fund and authored the legislation that led to California's landmark Middle Class Scholarship program, which has benefitted more than 350,000 California students at UC and CSU.
Mr. Pérez served as Assembly Speaker during the 2013 Rim Fire and led efforts to improve the state's wildfire preparation, response, and recovery systems. A longtime labor leader, Mr. Pérez also authored and supported several pieces of legislation to ensure firefighters had the tools they need along with appropriate compensation, retirement, and benefits for their survivors. As Chair of the UC Board of Regents, Mr. Pérez oversaw a budget of $41.6 billion and a workforce of 236,000 faculty and staff. He has focused on ensuring UC provides an elite education without elitist barriers and ensuring the cost of education at UC be affordable, equitable, and predictable.
He also helped create the University Working Group on Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship, which is tasked with optimizing moving UC discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace. Coming from a labor background, Mr. Pérez helped UC settle contract disputes that had been unresolved for years.
Mr. Pérez grew up in the working-class communities of El Sereno and Highland Park, California. Prior to his election to the Assembly, Mr. Pérez served on a variety of boards and commissions including the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the California League of Conservation Voters, and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.