good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. hp is the birth place of a technique called management by walking around. if bill huelet and david pack around walked around i'm sure they they'd be surprised by what the workforce looks like now. a diverse workforce. an a perfect reflection of society to be sure, but hp is making it aer moe perfect mirror. the person in charge of the very big task is lesley slaton brown. normally this is where i'm beginning to ask you questions but i have a couple of things to point out. that is -- i said this the last time we had a diversity officer on the show. it is my job to ask you really hard questions. and they will be about diversity. i don't want you to misconstrue that somehow i'm against diversity. i'm also conscious that i'm a white anglo-saxon protestant man challenging you about diversity. and it could seem awkward. so that's why i wanted to throw that out. i'm not making an audition tape for "fox & friends." does that make sense? >> yes. >> let me ask you a tough question as long as we're talking about race and diversity. could i be a chief diversity officer? >> absolutely. it's about bringing new perspective to the table and if you have a new perspective you're welcome at the table. >> twitter had a white male diversity officer and he got in grief. i think he just quit. but he got grief while he was there, as if twitter didn't understand diversity because they hired a white male diversity officer. >> well, i think -- you know, as i said, the way that we look at diversity at hp and we started by forming the most diverse board of directors in the tech industry and corporate america. we started with 42% women at the helm and 23% african-americans or excuse me, full minority. and what that brings in partnership with the white males is that you have all views represented at the table. and that's what our goal is. >> when you think about diversity in silicon valley there's a lot of people who feel like, you know, maybe gender gets more attention. or, you know when you talk ab t about, you know, white men and asian men like is there, you know, a difference between hiring asian versus hiring african-american and, you know, what about hiring older people and age discrimination? how should we think about diversity, because a lot of these are individual problems but really it's also the whole same problem. how do you guys approach it? >> in the way that we approach it, sarah, i appreciate your question, is that -- and it goes back to all, right. we do business in 170 countries across the world and although we're headquartered in the silicon valley, we have hub sites within the u.s., across the u.s. it's very important for us to really be able to balance that workforce. so ethnic minorities, race representation, gender, generational, abilities, veteran status, all of that is very important to us. because we create technology for everyone everywhere. and so we have to be very respectful to that in knowing that -- we have to bring that into our workforce and honor that. >> i notice you didn't include religion -- >> religion as well. >> religion as well. you would consider a rouse -- religious person of some religious faith to counts toward the diversity enernumber? >> well, it brings a perspective to the table. >> i guess i should refine the question, when you put together the diversity report is religion -- >> no, it is not. >> can we talk about the end goal of diversity? that gets a lot of drama and attention. the first response is always from people saying, well, these are already successful companies. they're making a lot of money so obviously it's not an issue of diversity. can you counter that? >> well, the reason i think that hp has had the success it's had is because we have a legacy of caring about our workforce. and so when bill huelet and dave packard formed hp, they considered how do we build a workforce -- well, first of all, product that meet the needs of a community. and then in addition to that, they consciously thought about what the workforce should look like in order to innovate. that's what we're focused on. our end game is greater innovation and winning. >> sarah touched on the white and asian question. one of the lines in your report is underrepresented minorities which i would assume is african-american, native american, what is an underrepresented minority? >> that's different things in different countries. within the u.s., within the u.s. it's ethnicities and race. and it is gender. and so we look at -- as well as veteran status. >> well, i guess what i'm asking is are asians considered -- are they considered a minority at -- in hewlett-packard -- or hp, and an underrepresented? >> well, so at hp, we don't focus just on our numbers. so we have looked at how do we reinvent the standard for diversity and in looking at that, if we're in the silicon valley, we -- asians are not underrepresented. in boise, idaho, where we have one of the largest sites it is. so we have to be very specific to those different geographies that we focus and we do business in. >> now, there's been a lot of data that's come out in the last four or five years about why gender and racially diverse teams are better for companies. there's tons of stats on this and yet we haven't seen a lot of change. even at companies like facebook where someone like sheryl sandberg is number two of the company and a big advocate for this. a lot of studies when people don't have to usenary names show that a lot -- use their names show that a lot of white men are sick of hearing this issue. only 25% of companies have active programs to address this. 95% don't see it as a core thing they need to be focused on. if it's not your priority, how can we expect managers particularly time pressed people building high growth companies to pay attention to it? >> at hp it is our priority and it starts with our board of directors. our ceo is very much dedicated to it and as we know, the white male is a really strong component of the success that we need. in addition to that, when hp, when hewlett-packard split off into two companies in november of 2015 we were very intentional with one forming that board of directors. but we saw an increase even in one -- women in the executive levels. so we increased to i think it was 27%. so by 4% increase. and we looked at it from the standpoint of first and foremost you must embed diversity across all aspects of the company. you cannot do it by a program here and a program there. you can't do it by checking the box of numbers when you're hiring. so our goal is to continue to see incremental growth year over year. one single company can't fix the diversity problem within the silicon valley, but the role that hp is playing is saying that let's embed it into everything that we do. and with that, our senior leadership -- which by the way is 29% national representation, and represents seven different countries across the globe as well, are all 100% committed to it. >> can i just pick up on something that sarah said. intel got a lot of attention when brian krzanich introduced his initiative. part of it is because he has two daughters who are interested in s.t.e.m. and he thought about what their career path would look like if they were entering the workforce today and he was not happy with the outcome. so he tied it to money. there was a financial incentive for managers to understand that the success matrix is not hitting an engineering goal, but helping the bottom line or maybe the top line depending on your point of view. has hp done something along that line, put money behind the efforts in diversity? >> i think we have put more than money behind the efforts. we have our leadership stepping out and i'll start with kim rivera. starting with tracy keogh who established the board of directors in partnership with meg whitman. kim who is our general counsel and head of legal said in september of 2015 i think it was -- 2016 rather that i'm going to enforce that all of our counsel -- general counsel, legal partners adhere to the same accountability that we as a company is -- are accountable for. we want them to have that same representation. the legal industry is lacking in diversity as well. so we want to see women and we want to see minorities in partnership levels with firms we do business with. >> i have more questions about that, because i have that memo in my hand. in fact. we have run out of time. i have come to the commercial. what i'd like to do is keep talking with you. we'll put the rest of it on the internet. would that be -- >> absolutely. >> all right. so, for those of you watching on television, up next, people bid on houses but why not apartments? you'll meet a guy who's annoyed at renters when "press: here" continues here on television, to continue with lesley, check us out on the website. welcome back to "press: here." a new san francisco start-up is allowing landlords to solicit bids for their apartments the way that realtors do for houses. it's called rentberry. you're willing to pay $3,000 a month for an apartment i bid $3,200. rentberry is available in cities all over san francisco. chicago and new york and los angeles. alex lubinsky came up with the idea and it caused immediate controversy and he seems to welcome it. you got a lot of press, negative press in some cases. but boy, people started to talk about rentberry. >> they did. well, we got a lot of positive press as well. or, you know, a big celeb on -- we have an article and we got the tv feature about us. so it's actually mixed. but i would say there's like more positive than negative actually. >> what exactly was your goal in setting up this app? i'm not trying to be simplistic here. people talk all the time about the controversy over uber and to me they have a wonderful realtime mobile reservation system. it's when they bring in cars and drivers that they get messy. you have an industry that people are applying for apartments and landlords are trying to sell it, there's a lot of paperwork and a vetting process. so obviously, digital technology can help optimize that. but you have taken it a step further with the bidding. can you talk about that? >> sure. one thing i want to make clear it's not just about bidding. many people, it's a huge misconception, i think somebody put in the news a couple of months ago -- >> normally you don't bid for apartments. >> normally you don't. but at the same time, normally you apply for the apartment, filling out paper applications, you submit paper checks. so our platform is much more than bidding. it is actually -- we became actually the first -- we closed the rental platform in the united states about a month ago. so as a matter of fact, a landlord and tenant can do all of the rental tasks in one place and this is huge. until now, nobody else had done it in the united states. and in terms of the bidding so we like to call it not so much bidding but custom submission technology. >> you can call it whatever it is. >> i'll tell you it's a huge difference. when you say bidding on ebay, on ebay people are on computers or something they want to sell. i want the price to go higher, higher and higher. in our situation this is what we see on the market in the real estate. when a landlord puts up a property for rent the price can go lower. and this is huge because essentially it's not just about price. it's a huge misconception because it's lots of data points that go into the analysis of the actual tenant. >> i'm going to ask you about that. there's an important point there. but you're saying if it's $3,000 a month and i bid $2,800 -- >> you can get the place. >> okay. the landlord may say -- >> exactly. yes. >> you're going with -- we know more about the tenant thing. i know we all have questions on that. continue, i'm sorry. >> well, what was your question? >> well, my question -- the suspicion of where you're going is now we have built this profile of this tenant. as a landlord i want somebody with a good credit rating but i know about this tenant that would enable me to be discriminatory in ways that i might not over a phone call, over e-mail, because now i can see this tenant. there's a profile picture of this tenant. >> well, first of all, let's get clear about -- it's avatar. so some people call it profile picture, it's avatar. you know, it's the same as if you go to the twitter or facebook -- >> doesn't have to be my picture. >> exactly. exactly. we made it for fun. somebody can put a picture of a tree or a dog. it's an avatar. there's nothing in our platform that would discriminate against users. i think to the previous question about data points, tenants submit the information such as how much money they make, how long do they work there, do they have any room mates, pets that they have. so lots of data points and then security deposit and then the rental price. criminal reports. you know, credit scores. >> things you would expect. >> exactly. so landlords analyze all of this data and all of those applications and they make a decision. you know, who to take. it's not necessarily something -- or someone who offered more money. >> so let me go back to my original question which is you had an opportunity to disrupt, right? that's the word du jour. and automate something that wasn't automated. >> yep. >> the part that's controversial is the bidding part which i think we can all agree on. >> yep. >> but if your intent is to help the landlords basically rent their apartments, right not do a service, help them to price it correctly? right? if they're pricing it too high, then somebody is telling them they're pricing it too high or too low if that's the case. is a value add you're bringing without adding the extra component of the bidding war aspect that we all and some of your critics are, you know, not comfortable with. >> excellent question. my answer will be in two parts. but first of all, in terms of the landlords, when you say price it correctly, we have the data. we can tell the landlord how much he or she should potentially price the property for. and by the way, this data -- i mean, the landlord can go check out his neighbor and the neighbor is charging $2,000 so he might charge $2,000 as well. every property is different. my property might have a better remodelling. i might be a better landlord. somebody like you for example, if you offer slightly more money because we're much better -- we have a much better start during the open house. things like that. then in terms of the tenants that's my second kind of answer to this question. because let's say a price of the property is 3,000 bucks. an analogy is the same you go to the car dealership you want to buy a car. if you have a better credit score, you get a better apr. somebody with less, they get a higher percentage to buy this car. if i'm a better tenant, a better tenant do i need to get a discount, yes, you should. >> alex lubinsky, i have to leave it there. i have run it out of time. thank you for being with us. washington backs off the threats on marijuana when "press: here" continues. welcome back to "press: here." the 2017 u.s. federal budget has a lot of surprises in it. there's more money for foreign aid, even though president trump wanted to cut it. federal funding for so-called sangier cities will continue and we know there's no funding for a border wall. but buried down is a line that prohibits washington from interfering with state's decision about marijuana. this despite the fact that our attorney general wants to do just that. no doubt jim patterson let out a huge exhale hearing that news. he's the ceo of ease, the cannabis delivery basis. i assume you saw what i did there. >> yes. >> very good. i read somewhere that you had not used marijuana until the time you became the ceo of a marijuana company. is that -- >> yeah, that's right. actually i was in the military and i was in the air force straight out of college. i was in the rotc so you get regularly tested, and it was never part of my life. i came to silicon valley. i was working and then -- >> microsoft. i mean, you look like a straight laced guys. lots of people use marijuana at this point. straight laced guy for a man running a marijuana delivery service. >> that's right. one, i'm surprised at the variety of people that use can abyss. i think a lot of people use it and don't talk about it. one of the things about the industry, everyone has a strong opinion, but no one knows about it. i have been learning a lot. yes, since i have joined the company, i'm a product person so i have tried everything. >> i think what annoys me the most about a lot of medical marijuana companies and the industry is less -- i agree with you, there's a lot of people that use it and don't talk about it. it's the people who can't stop talking about it. do you think this is going to grow up as an industry like it needs to grow out of this like very bob marley, plants everywhere, 420, like sort of culture around it? i think they can be offputting in and of itself. >> one of the things we do is we're trying to separate cannabis from stoner culture. in fact, the majority of the americans are in favor of cannabis. people are put off by the cannabis culture. just in terms of the little bit thing -- little things like design and communication, trying to separate those, for people cannabis is like alcohol. something they use. either medicinally or recreationally but it's not a part of their life, it's a niche. and the industry is outgrowing that culture part of it. >> you went in with the delivery service, which, you know, there's all sorts of avenues into that industry and how tech can make it more efficient. i'm curious why that tack? >> i think when you think of 2017 it doesn't make sense to build an industry on brick and mortar retail. you know, people would rather buy stuff online and have it home delivered than go into the store. i think the dispensaries, the cities limit how many are allowed and they're zoned into the undesirable parts of the city. access is really important, so some people can't go to dispensary. but the other thing is convenience. you know, people want to buy things in the most convenient manner and buying things online and having them delivered is that. >> i assume when you buy, you buy via credit card, not via cash. >> we accept both. >> so your drivers carry cash and drugs? seems like the most robable driver ever. >> i mean, you would think that. we hear that a lot, but if you actually look at our data our incident rate is in line if you look at uber, taxi, taxi drivers. we have a lot of protocols in place -- >> you know who you're delivering to that would help. if i'm a bad guy, i would order and someone -- >> but you give us your license, talk to the doctor, we have your gps location. so probably a bad bad guy. >> could be a bad guy's roommate. you know, i'm curious, scott talked sort -- started off by talking about how it's this sigh of relief that the federal government says it's not going to interfere on a state by state level. but it's like -- if that's what we're talking as relief in this industry, state by state legislation makes it very hard to invest in companies, to scale a big company. you know, how many wine companies did we see fail from the dotcom era on because of state by state regulation. is this yet really an investable industry? >> it's very early. you know, from the entrepreneurial perspective, we are in the very beginning of a multidecade period where the industry is going to grow. it's investable but it's high risk. for example, ease, we raise money. we have a few venture capitals. a lot of it comes from private family offices. you know, different types of money than a lot of the other silicon valley companies are raising from. mostly because the investors have a high risk tolerance. so -- >> >> what's your personal risk? i mean, could you get in trouble in some fashion as ceo of ease if the feds said we're going to crack down in some way that might affect your future? >> sure, potentially. >> you must have thought about that. >> that is what being an entrepreneur is all about, taking risk. some take financial risk and not personal risk. part of it is i wanted to do something that was exciting, more fun. you know, microsoft was great, but kind of getting out there and just doing more exciting comes with risk. >> they're breaking fewer laws than uber was when it started. fewer laws than airbnb was. >> we're extremely conservative in the way we operate. we don't deliver in los angeles. the los angeles delivery regulation is a gray area. some companies continue to operate. we pulled out. some of those companies actually got indicted so you know one thing we do is we have a legal team, lobbying team. we don't take the uber approach of just plowing into the city. you know, we work with local regulators. we use our data and things before we go in. we always have the green light from the local -- >> jim patterson is the ceo of ease. we appreciate you being here with us this morning. we'll be back in a moment. "press: here" is available as a podcast on itunes. up my thanks to my guests, jim patterson, alex lubinsky who invented rentberry and lesley slaton brown, chief diversity officer at hp. all interviews are available online and on i tunes. search "press: here" nbc. i'm scott mcgrew. thank you for making us part of your sunday morning. unidad del valle." i am damian trujillo, and today, some important research about our communities put on by the sacred heart community services of san jose on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: again, that research was conducted by sacred heart. rachel wright here is one of the authors of that research, and she dug in and dug up a lot of valuable information. she joins us here on "comunidad del valle." welcome to the show. rachel wright: thank you. damian: well, tell us, first of all, about the research and maybe what you've found from that. rachel: okay, so we do research in the community to make sure that we're addressing the right problems in santa clara county. we're the santa clara county community action agency. we receive money from the federal government to fight poverty. and so, what we first do in the research is we ask people in the community what they think is the most important issues in the county.

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