But brad, welcome, its good to see you again. Great to see you. Thanks for having me. I wonder as a tech investor what you make of the nasdaq and that sector the last few days. Is it a simple correction or something more you probably saw last night i tweeted, pullback . What pullback . Precovid the multiple on the soft way growth index was about ten times sales it peaked about a week ago today were at 13 time sales were still 30 higher valuationses in software than we were before the paechbd. The same is true for growth internet precovid about 23 times next years ebitda. We peaked at about 35 times next years ebitda. Today were still at 32 times, so heart will hardly a correction in my books. Do you think some of these stocks got simply out of control in the way they went up parabolically . The characterization doesnt need to get worse. Its pretty good these are peak multiples for stocks in the middle of a Global Pandemic for most software companies, the pandemic has not accelerated their revenues theres certain Ecommerce Companies where we have seen tremendous acceleration, to the expansion is justified, but we have seen an expansion of the multiple for the entire sector some suggests that it wasnt fundamentally driven and theres still a fair amount of air that needs to come out of the balloon, if you will in certain pocke pockets. The rate at which enterprises will move into the cloud has accelerated, so its logical that analysts are looking at the forecast and saying were probably too low the same is true for ecommerce. Markets move quickly were at peak multiples, and so it would be logical in a world where were starting to talk about vaccines that we see some money moving out of the highgrout sectors back into more traditional areas of the economy. How row feeling about your facebook holding, im also told you added the microsoft in the last month or so how are you feeling about the large Megacap Technology stocks that you own today scott, as you know, weve owned facebook for years, uber for years, snowflake for years were longterm investors, so, you know, certainly some of those multiples are more demanding today than 120 days ago. I would be lying if i didnt say the rate at which prices and information has changed has been as fast as ive seen in my career with that said, our price targets when we look two, three years out for facebook, for uber, for, you know, Companies Like snowflake are significant lid higher than where theyre trading today, so were not making many adjustments for the portfolio. It has been a whip. The nasdaq going through the faster it correction in simply three days the dow is up its up 500, about 2 nasdaq is having a nice day. I mentioned scott, remember, tesla was down 21 yet, but still up 300 on the year, in the middle of a Global Pandemic. So this is part of healthy consolidation in a market that just moved really far really fast. You cant like at that in a couple ways, too in the text that you just put it in, but also this my word, no one elses, maybe the absurdity in which some of these stocks moved up, the swiftness that they did, and perhaps that suggests that theres a pretty good amount of down side that could happen to some of these names. Maybe its tesla, maybe its others i can look at that a couple different ways, brad. I think youre exactly right, and stan drunken miller referred to it as a mania this morning you cant have a sixmonth point of viewed. Certainly multiples could contract to their mean, which is another 20 to 30 down side from where we are today. If you take a two or threeyear view, which most of your viewers should be doing, you can own these ands you just need to size them appropriately in your portfol portfolio. Speaking of views, you are taking a bigpicture view, if you will, not a sixmonth, maybe a 12month view and out of the play of the board structure, the way our corporate boards look. That speaks to the board challenge, which you have launched today with cofounders, but speak to me of that idea, why now and what the response has been yeah, scott, i think you put it well. Its simply a Movement Among companies, Business Leaders and invest offers to accelerate the rate as which we diversified it started like many other movements start. It was a conversation that came out of a question my 12yearold song lincoln asked me, after viewing the tragic death of george floyd he said, dad, what are you going to do about this i realized as an investor, a board member, there was something we could do. Its a small part of the puzzle, but we certainly could accelerate the rate at which we were changing our boardrooms i had reached out to guy, to people who have been working on these issues for a long time soon we were a group of 30 asking ceos and Board Members to take the pledge, a commitment that theyre going to accelerate the change in the boardroom. Not just for black directors, bud starting with that, and they need to recognize a more Diverse Company and boardroom will lead to better results. Those cofounders you mentioned them, sakinder cassidy, and guy primus, great to have everybody with us today, and sakinder, the numbers dont lie, right more than a third of s p have zero blackBoard Members. The question is, with this initiative and others, are things going to change we certainly hope so. Historically this has been thought of as a pipeline challenge. We note at the board list that interviews of ceos to that the pipeline myth is just that, a myth we suffer from homogenous networks, long board tenures and not enough turnover. We look at an increasing deal and recognition in gender and all almost every time of med rick so i think were seeing a shift, this is really a board focus on changing its overall representation guy, we know boards dont represent the employees of the company. They dont represent the customers of any given company, and they certainly dont represent society anotht large. The issue is how quickly you can change things. This is a good in addition tiff to kick things off the conversation has certainly fired up since the george floyd incidents and others that we all know about its going to take some time to change though, right absolutely. But the change starts with one small step we are really dedicated to being the catalyst you had talk about, for the professional and economic success it was incredible. Brad called me again, were 80 days into this conversation, and just one call at a time weve gotten, you node, over 40 companies to sign up to either say, hey, im going to add a blackboard member in the next 12 months, or of a blackboard member or Board Members, and im committed to maintaining that, and then sharing my experience and accelerating that change again, so being the catalyst starts with one small step if you ask if things are going to change, things already have changed. Peep have opened their eyes and minds to the fact this is necessary, and not only is it necessary for societal benefit, but its necessary for shareholders value when i was at starbucks, i saw it happening, walking into the boardroom and seeing what happened as a result of their involvement. So sukhinder there are companies that have at least one black director theyre charter pledge partners of years ww, the former weight watchers, merck, the nasdaq, new york stock exchange, nordstrom, verizon, companies that are speaking out today on behalf of this initiative. Have you finding that there are companies that want to do the right thing, but they want to do it on their own terms and timeline look, i think what is true, is this is a current conversation in every boardroom in america, private and public of course the boards need to look at the overall composition. We need an issue like this challenge will accelerate the conversation and force boards to look at where and how they will change their perspective this is a very current conversation with every company we talked to, whether they took the challenge or not. I appreciate you all being here brad, youre going to stick around we have much more on the half were back in just two minutes incomparable design makes it beautiful. Stateoftheart Technology Makes it brilliant. The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2020 nx 300 for 339 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The game doesnt end after a spectacular touchdown grab experbecause theres always another team looking to punch one in. With nfl redzone from nfl network on xfinity, you get every touchdown from every game on sunday afternoons. All season long. Watch every breakout star, every heart pounding running attack and every bigtime defensive stop. Sundays were made for football on xfinity. Thats simple, easy, awesome. Add the more sports and entertainment package for nfl redzone. Click, call or visit a store today to learn more. Nice comeback for stocks today. Ken frazier is the chairman and ceo of merck he joins us today along with les brun he serves on the board of corning and broad ridge. Gentlemen, thank you for being here ken, id like to begin with you, if i could. Youre a pledge partner here, and i notice this issue is one you care about deeply personally and professionally it is at merck weve tried to do a couple things to make sure we are actually having the right kinds of people on our board the first one is to expand the pool of qualified candidates the second one, and this is important, is to ensoure there no implicit or specific barriers to doing that. We have three africanamerican board of directors, and 50 female weve been able to find the kinds of people who are leaders in business, science and medicine. You know, i saw or read an interview, mr. Frazier, that you did with heart rad recently, and i was struck by your answer. You were asked whether you thought this time would be different, and you said, quote, im not sure i hope its different. So theres a balance between hope and optimism, isnt there yes, there is you know, i have to say im more of an optimist i cant say for sure things will change, but i have to say this time feels different, in that the conversation is happening in every boardroom and around kitchen tables all in america, around a really difficult issue, around the systemic effects of racism you know, its very easy when you see somebody like george floyd to deal with the overly brutal racism reflected there, but you know, we do have the systemic issues. The fact of the matter is there is, with respect to health outcomes, with respect to job outcomes, income outcomes, there are huge disparities i think its not logical to say that none of those disparities and outcomes link back to disparities in opportunity. Le seiss, youve served on a number of corporate boards are you optimistic that things will truly change . Yeah, i am optimistic i think that there are as ken just mentioned, this is a topic of conversation across the board. Not only is it being driven by Board Members, ceos, other senior executives, but as well Institutional Investors in these enterprises who are also asking those kinds of questions, and wanting to know why more hasnt or isnt being done. At that happening increasingly people will begin to focus on what it is that is doable in order to expand the participation of black people on these boards. We had a special last night, gentlemen. I want you to listen to what the former xerox ceo ursula burns told us about how we should be identifying talent and where, and how we can expand the talent pool, if you will. Lets listen and well have the reaction from everybody. What has to happen is we have to change the criteria the criteria has been structured in such a way that you will not find a broad set of diverse candidates for example, most board searches ask for sitting or past ceos if you do that as a criteria, you can probably count on two hands the number of candidates you will get that are diverse. Ken, you obviously have a unique perspective that youre going to answer the question, but what do you have to say about what ursula burns had to say . I agree completely with her about the criteria i was fortunate to go on the exxon board under Rex Tillersons leadership, wait before i became the ceo of merck. I benefited from that opportunity. I hope ive been able to make a contribution but i think theres another subtle issue here, the issue who has the right networks to move up into Senior Management or boardrooms linkedin did a study recently and 80 or more of these positions are billed filled through social networks. So long as we dont have africanamericans and latinos represented at the higherish loan echelons its unlikely theyll be able to take advantage of those social networks. We want a pool of qualified people, but often we ask questions like, does anybody know this candidate . Do you think this candidate would be a good fit . Those kinds of relationship issues are critical. They become the networking issues that either include people or unintentionally exclude people les, go ahead, please. Just to add to what ken is saying, its pretty clear that networking is important and curating a group of candidates and available executives to join boards is important. I think we recognize that, and as a group of africanamerican lead director, nongovernment chairs, so on, there are several groups coming together to effectively curate that group of pools of folks we know for candidates i recall, quite honestly, every board member at one point was not a board member not everyone starts off with the qualification of either being a kreis ceo or having had board service. I these we need to be more thorough at looking at what and there are those who immediate those qualifications exceptionally well that may not be apparent within the networks of current compositions of boards. Scott, i just want to be perfectly clear. This question about criteria this is not about coming dodum , but simply have not been given a shot all of our partners here are raising their hands and saying, we will help you find a skill match, performance match director to serve your company so i dont think its a problem of talent. I think its a problem of inertia and imagination. In some ways you are going to this initiative, in and of itself, is going to develop its own network if it goes according to plan, if you will, right . Yes, the network we offer as a default to it was company that takes the pledge, a free slate of candidates that the board will be putting together one of the beautiful things about ken and les leading on this, theyre raising their hands saying we also know how to do this successfully and we will share our best practices with Companies Looking to make the change its no longer check the box and put your head down and hope that nobody notices this is about raising our voices, joining arms, and make sure that weapon not only add black directors and latino directors to board, but we add the best members to board that Push Companies forward. Ken, i hope you will oblige me a question or two about mercks effort to get a covid vaccine. Its certainly topical, giving the fact you were one of the ceos who signed the safety pledge the other day and the astrazeneca news were trying to process over the last 24 hours or so. Can you give me an update on where merck stands in its race to develop a vaccine, in terms of that phase one trial . Lets saying we are advancing two candidates we havent talked a lot about them publicly. We tent not to talk about the work that were doing until we have meaningful clinical up results. But going back to the pledge we want people to know is the first thing were focused on safety before we bring a vaccine to market. Do you worry at all about the political pressures infiltra infiltrating, if you will, into the approval process of any vaccine candidate thats out there . Well, i know theres a lot of public voices talking about when vaccines will be ready, but the fact of the matter is you cant rush science we have to be careful and deliberate were pledging as sponsors, as developers, well be that careful, that deliberate coming forward, because we know were going into healthy people. When youre putting vaccines into healthy people, you have to do Everything Possible to ensure that these vaccines are both safe and effective i appreciate your time very much ken frazier, les brun. Brad, youre sticking with us. Thank you, gentlemen. Rich barton joins us coming up tomorrows including an inclusion and act forum is tomorrow, programmed in partnership with the executive Leadership Council that event will feature conversations with many more you can join us tomorrow and giert cnbc events. Com inclusion get zero percent financing on the 2020 is 300. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Its a thirteenhour flight, tfifteen minutes until we board. Oh yeah, we gotta take off. You downloaded the Td Ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets . Yeah, actually im taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. Excellent. And you have thinkorswim mobile so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. You two are all set. Have a great flight. Thanks. Well see ya. Ah, theyre getting so smart. Choose the app that fits your investing style. Here is your cnbc news update william barr says the Justice Department will intervene in the Defamation Case against President Trump. Carroll claims that President Trump raped her in the 1990s. In britain gatherings more than six people will be banned starting next week just ahead of the new restrictions lond londoners lining up to shot in the new Rolling Stone store that opened today it will be difficult to get in when the new restrictions get in place. Scott, back to you we are back, joined by rich barton, the cofounder and ceo zillow they have committed to adding at least one africanamerican board member in the next 12 months Brad Gerstner is still with you. Good to see you. Good to see you, scott. Theres accountability that comes with all of this, too. Why doesnt zillow today have any africanamerican Board Members . As many of your esteemed guests we are speaking about earlier, ursula, les, ken and others, i think this is especially bad in silicon valley, that we tend to live in a bit of an echo chamber that includes talent the same talent kind of bournss around this echo chamber, and that