CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FAIR EMPLOYMENT AND HOUSING

Employment Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation

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Case Name: Holgado / Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

INSTRUCTIONS

Are you filing for someone else?: Yes

COMPLAINANT INFORMATION

Name: Raymond Holgado

Address:

City/State/Zip:

Telephone:

Mobile

Email: rayholgado@gmail.com

Are you filing against a?: Business

COMPLAINANT DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

THIS INFORMATION IS OPTIONAL AND IS ONLY USED FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES

COMPLAINANT'S REPRESENTATIVE

Name: Peter Rukin

Address: 1939 Harrison Street, Ste. 290

City/State/Zip: Oakland, California 94612

Telephone:

Mobile

Email: prukin@rukinhyland.com
RESPONDENT AND CO-RESPONDENT(S)

Name Address Telephone Mobile Email

601 Marshall Street
Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative Redwood City,
94063

DATES OF HARM

First Date of Harm: September 24, 2018

Most Recent Date of Harm: August 31, 2020

Is the harm continuing?: Yes

I ALLEGE THAT I EXPERIENCED DISCRIMINATION:

Because of my actual or perceived:

Race
Color

As a result I was:

Denied hire or promotion

Denied any employment benefit or privilege
Denied work opportunities or assignments

Briefly describe what you believe to be the reason(s) for the discrimination, harassment, or
retaliation. (Optional)

Please See Attachment/Submitted Document.

Following is a list of uploaded document(s)

Document Name Update Date/Time

DFEH Claim 11.9.2020.pdf November 9, 2020
Do you need special acommodations? No

Appointment

Contact phone number:

Appointment date:

Appointment hour:

Appointment status: New

NOT A LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENT. This document does not constitute proof of filing of a
Employment form with the DFEH. For additional information, please visit www.dfeh.ca.gov or contact the
DFEH at 800-884-1684.
 I. INTRODUCTION

Respondent Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is a foundation established and

owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. CZI
describes itself as a philanthropy designed “to leverage technology, community-
driven solutions and collaboration to help solve some of society’s toughest
challenges [and] to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone.” It
is estimated to be “one of the most well-funded philanthropies in human history.”
https://www.vox.com/2017/7/10/15771676/priscilla-chan-facebook-philanthropy-
mark-zuckerberg-initiative-cure-diseases.

It is also one of the least transparent philanthropies in the United States. CZI is not
a charitable foundation but rather a limited liability company owned by Zuckerberg
and Chan. Under this legal structure, Zuckerberg “control[s] the Facebook shares
owned by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2015/12/04/mark-zuckerberg-explains-
why-the-chan-zuckerberg-initiative-isnt-a-charitable-foundation/#7a2f0aa370c5.

Despite its social justice rhetoric, CZI is not a welcoming environment for Black
employees. Black employees are underpaid, undervalued, denied growth
opportunities, and marginalized. Black employees who want to advance within the
organization are shut down and labeled as too assertive or aggressive, while non-
Black employees are favored and encouraged. When Black employees have
communicated these concerns to CZI leadership, CZI has responded defensively
and failed to address the underlying issues. CZI has utterly failed to “build a more
inclusive, just, and healthy future” for its Black employees.

I. Race Bias Against Holgado

Claimant Raymond Holgado (“Holgado”) was hired by CZI in September of 2018

as a Grants Manager. When Holgado (who is Black) received the job offer from a
recruiter, Holgado asked if there was room for negotiation regarding the starting
salary. Holgado was told he would not be able to negotiate the salary because a
“level” system was in place that ensured pay equity across the organization and
across comparable roles. Holgado was leveled as an IC5. However, after joining
CZI, Holgado discovered that non-Black employees had successfully negotiated a
higher salary and starting level. It quickly became apparent that Holgado was being
underpaid compared to non-Black colleagues doing comparable work.
In January of 2019, Holgado’s direct supervisor, the Director of Grants
Management, announced they would be leaving the organization. They cited a lack
of confidence in the Legal department’s leadership, a toxic culture and being
overworked while feeling persistently under-resourced, as reasons for their
departure.

Holgado also found the team culture toxic and decided to apply for an internal role
that was advertised and presented to him as a higher paying Program Officer
position within the Criminal Justice Reform team in the Justice and Opportunity
(JOI) department. During the application process, Holgado learned that the
Program Officer position he was applying for was classified as IC6 despite the fact
that it was substantially similar to his Grant Manager job. The Legal department
resisted Holgado’s effort to move to the IC6 position on the ground he had not
been with the organization long enough, despite the fact that there was no official
policy at the time prohibiting such a move. The Legal department only relented
after multiple meetings where Holgado advocated for his right to apply for the role.
The position was eventually offered to him only on the condition that: (1) he
agreed to perform a mixture of duties for the previous and new role; and (2) he
would not receive the originally published level and salary increase.

Holgado signed the offer letter for the new role on March 1st 2019, with his official
start date stated as May 20 2019 – the agreed upon date that he would transition
th

fully into the new role and cease his prior duties. Unfortunately, CZI did not honor
this agreement, and Holgado continued to straddle multiple roles until late July
2019.

Holgado communicated a concern to senior managers on both teams about having

to continue juggling multiple roles and told them that he felt he was being paid and
titled inappropriately for the work he was performing. On July 11th 2019, Hillary
Bounds, VP, Legal and Grants offered Holgado higher pay (IC7), an elevated title
and a direct report if he returned to the Legal department.

On July 15th Holgado told Eric Hysen, Director of Operations for JOI, that he was
considering the Legal team’s offer. On July 23rd, Hillary Bounds told Holgado that
the Legal department’s offer was rescinded. Bounds explained that Hysen had
spoken to Erika Rottenberg, General Counsel and head of the Legal department
about the situation, and that following their conversation, Rottenberg no longer
wanted Holgado on the Legal team because he was an “opportunist” for being
concerned with seeking promotion/re-leveling.

When Holgado spoke with Hysen about the rescinded offer, Hysen denied any
involvement but assured Holgado that he would be promoted in the coming months
and that it would be equivalent to the rescinded IC7 opportunity. Troncoso also
approached Holgado to discuss the situation. Troncoso assured Holgado that he
had no hard feelings about Holgado seeking an opportunity outside of JOI, but
warned Holgado that if he tried to leave the department again, Troncoso would not
be as forgiving.

Despite this threat to his job security, Holgado continued to advocate for
appropriate pay, title and workload. Noting Holgado’s continued efforts, Troncoso
later referred to Holgado as “quietly aggressive.”

In November 2019, as part of a department reorganization, Hysen and Troncoso

offered Holgado the role of Grantmaking and Business Operations Manager in JOI.
The new role was presented as an IC6 level position and entailed all of his former
duties in addition to processing contracts for all of JOI and hiring/supervising an
associate who would support this work. Holgado objected to the IC6 level
classification, reminding Hysen and Troncoso that he had been offered an IC7
position previously. He further noted that the role he had performed for the past
nine months was designed as an IC6, which meant that he was being underpaid as
an IC5, despite multiple strong performance reviews over this period. Holgado
explained that promoting him to an IC6 role also did not address the existing
under-leveling and asked whether he would have been offered a higher-level
position had he been appropriately leveled previously.

Troncoso told Holgado that he understood his points and assured him that he
would see what he could do to remedy the concerns. On December 3rd, Holgado
met with Hysen and Troncoso again. They informed him that they could not offer
him anything higher than an IC6 position but said that they would secure a
retention bonus for him, to be paid out over the next two years. Despite Holgado’s
concerns, the new position was not presented as a choice and he was placed into
the role effective December 1, 2019.

As part of the reorganization, Holgado reported to Meagan Gardner, who had been
promoted to interim head of JOI operations as Eric Hysen announced he would be
leaving the organization. Prior to joining the JOI operations team, Gardner had
handled the bulk of contract processing for JOI – a task that was ultimately given
to Holgado following the reorganization. Before Hysen passed his responsibilities
to Gardner in early February 2020, Hysen told Holgado that he would need to
provide Gardner with continued support and assist in her onboarding because she
was not familiar with many of the core functions of the role. Gardner’s
management style consisted of extracting ideas and solutions from Holgado and
presenting them off as her own. Essentially, Holgado had been given Gardner’s
previous duties so that she could assume a leadership role suitable for Holgado and
for which Gardner was ill-equipped.

Having been consistently denied promotion and growth opportunities at CZI, paid
less than similarly situated non-Black employees, and otherwise treated differently
because of his race, Holgado made the decision to leave CZI effective August
2020.

II. Systemic Discrimination at CZI

Holgado’s experience was indicative of a larger issue affecting Black employees

and CZI’s engagement with Black communities. Holgado met with Black
employees across the organization, advocated for more junior staff, and argued for
more racially inclusive grantmaking strategies. Holgado made multiple attempts to
highlight these issues for members of the leadership team. On August 20th, 2019,
Holgado met with Chan, and told her that he had heard firsthand from multiple
Black employees who had experienced discrimination at CZI. Holgado said that he
was troubled by the dynamics of race, class and gender in the workplace. Holgado
told Chan that CZI had a quota-based approach to diversity – meaning that it had
retained Black talent but failed to empower Black employees or integrate their
perspectives into the work. Holgado stated that he did not want to betray any
privacy expectation in his co-workers’ communications but appealed to Chan to
investigate the issues further and commit to taking concrete actions to address the
lack of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures at CZI.

Chan responded that the claims were concerning but defended CZI on the grounds
that “DEI may look different for each of us.” Chan rejected the idea of hiring a
seasoned DEI professional, indicating that she preferred to select a more junior
individual for the role. She said that she wanted to “give them the opportunity to
develop in the role and in their understanding of these issues, in the same way
we’ve been able to develop you on the Criminal Justice team.” This comment
further highlighted the patronizing approach that CZI took with its Black
employees, treating him not as a valued and productive member of the organization
but rather as an underprivileged and perpetual junior-level staff member who
should be grateful for the opportunity to develop his talents at CZI.

CZI’s treatment of its Black employees mirrored its perception of the Black
experience. CZI was simultaneously hostile to efforts to question the racial status
quo and defensive about criticism that its grant-making was not sufficiently
progressive. For example, in early 2019 Holgado proposed bringing in Edgar
Villanueva, philanthropy executive and author of Decolonizing Wealth. Holgado
had known Villanueva for multiple years and believed his book and framing of the
dynamics of philanthropy would be enriching for CZI grant-makers and general
staff. While initial support for this idea was strong from staff members, the Legal
team shut down the proposal. Holgado was told that grant-makers already felt that
their work was not progressive and responsive to community needs. They believed
that Villanueva would only highlight more issues of contention for staff and felt
that CZI had to be careful not to “stoke the flames.” Later in 2019, Holgado again
proposed bringing Villaneuva in to discuss his work, pitching the idea to Troncoso,
then head of Criminal Justice Reform. Troncoso quickly shot the idea down,
explaining that “we don’t need anyone coming in here and telling us we’re serving
white supremacy culture.”

On another occasion, shortly after joining the Criminal Justice Reform department
Holgado was warned by a senior member of the team that he should refrain from
advocating for grantmaking strategies that expressly addressed the racial disparities
present in the criminal justice system. Despite the wealth of research illustrating
structural racism in the American legal system and the disproportionate
incarceration of the Black population, Holgado was told that Zuckerberg and Chan
did not view race as relevant to the issue of mass incarceration and that previous
attempts to push the pair on this issue had contributed to a former employee being
terminated.

Holgado has not been alone in raising issues of racial discrimination at CZI. He
served on the steering committee of CZI's Black employee resource group,
Building Leadership and Knowledge (BLK). Following the murder of George
Floyd and the public outcry earlier this year, CZI made a public push to portray
itself as a racial justice funder for whom “Black Lives Matter.” Recognizing the
hypocrisy and performative nature of the comments coming from leadership given
the racial discrimination many Black employees had experienced at CZI, BLK
took action to ensure that the organization was held accountable to these professed
values. BLK collectively drafted a letter to Chan expressing the need to address
these issues of racial inequity, both internally and throughout CZI’s grantmaking,
along with a list of requests that they believed would be good faith first steps for
the organization. This resulted in a series of weekly meetings between Chan, Chief
Operating Officer Josué Estrada and BLK membership.

Early on in their meetings, Chan made it clear that she was not willing to meet
BLK’s requests – most notably, she would not share the pay equity data that BLK
had requested. Chan stated that she did not wish to release that data until she had a
more thorough understanding of it, along with a plan on how the organization
could improve the data moving forward. Notably, during a July 17th, 2020 meeting,
Chan stated that the attrition rate of Black employees was higher than other
employee groups adding that the difference was “in fact statistically significant.
So, I want to acknowledge that.” Many Black employees present at this meeting
walked away feeling Chan was ill-equipped to discuss these issues, let alone
address them.