a recent driver of this discussion is that ellen powell versus kleiner perkins lawsuit that powell sueder former employer for gender discrimination argue that the vc firm did not promote her because she's a woman. she lost that case but it did generate a lot of top. the trade group, which was just formed in december, will tail a plan at the white house swrout lining steps for diversity. maybe better human resources policies and more studies measuring diversity. the numbers are not too good. according to a 2011 study by dow jones only 1% of vc partners are african-american and less hand 1% are latino while a ba bson college study said the numbers went down from 10% to 6% in 2014. a silicon valley valley husband and wife are announcing a pledge of $40 million during the neck three years, two initiatives dedicated to gives women and underrepresented minorities more opportunities at becoming entrepreneurs. all of this is happening at the first ever white house demo day, it's happening wherein straighters will be featured from across america. a pretty big stage we are talking about here. >>

you may recognize this face, ellen powell recently sued her former employer kleiner perkins, accusingthem of gender discrimination by passing her up for promotions. she lost her case but it did attract a lot of international attention and at that has been one driver had this this discussion in the moves by vc firms to increase workplace diversity. the national venture capital association formed a new trade group in december which came up with the plan it is renting at the white house today. steps include research that measures diversity and developing better human resources policies. now, the numbers here not too good, according to a 2011 study by the association and by dow jones only 1% of vc partners are african-american, less than 1% are latino. according to a fortune magazine report in 2014, 92 of vc firms that raised over $200 million since 2009, only 4.2% of partner level venture capitalists were women. so again not good numbers and there's concern how this might impact who gets funding, women and minority entrepreneurs do they get the same attention from vc's? one silicon valle