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Peter Weber

Founder, New California Coalition Heartland Chapter
Founder of Fresno Bridge Academy
Former Fortune 500 executive

Peter Weber has been at the helm of some of the world’s leading technology, manufacturing and agricultural science companies. He served as vice president of FMC Corporation, a diversified Fortune 500 company; CEO of Teknowledge, Inc., a publicly traded artificial intelligence company; and CEO of Riverbend International, a publicly traded agribusiness company. He retired in 2001 to dedicate himself to civic work.Mr. Weber, who resides in Fresno, has served as an advisor to every Mayor of Fresno since 2001, including former California Competes Leadership Council member Ashley Swearengin. In 2004, he authored a turn-around plan for the Fresno Unified School District, the fourth largest school district in California.

In 2010, Mr. Weber launched the Fresno Bridge Academy, a program designed to bring residents in Fresno’s poorest neighborhoods into the economic mainstream. The program has lifted more than 5,000 Fresno families out of poverty, expanded into other counties, and is now called the California Bridge Academies. Mr. Weber currently serves as a senior advisor to the New California Coalition and the Stanford Lab for Deliberative Democracy. He serves on the board ofCalifornia Competes and is chair emeritus of California Forward and theCalifornia Bridge Academies. He formerly served on the board of the CaliforniaPartnership for the San Joaquin Valley; the Center for Advanced Research and Technology; the Fresno Business Council; the Fresno Citizen Corp; FresnoCitizens for Good Government; the Fresno Regional Jobs Initiative; the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and the Stanford Institute forManufacturing and Automation.

A native of Peru, Mr. Weber received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and is a graduate of the Executive Program at the Stanford University Business School. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and lectured at both U.C. Berkeley andStanford on strategies for lifting Californians out of poverty. In 2016, he was selected as a leadership award winner by the James Irvine Foundation. In 2019, he was recognized as California Steward Leader of the year at the StateEconomic Summit. In 2023, he was awarded the Ethical Leadership Award by the Ethics Center at Fresno State University.‍

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Change Is Possible

The New California Coalition is the non-partisan political home and voice for over 6.5 million “Common Sense” voters across California

We want results, and we are mobilizing to achieve them. The New California Coalition is organizing everyday voters, business leaders, and community organizations from across the state into a movement to demand change and action.

We want a massive amount of housing built to make homes accessible to buyers, renters, and the unhoused alike, not more excuses, red tape, and NIMBYism.

We want safe streets and communities instead of finger pointing, victim blaming, or hiding inaction behind empty and dangerous slogans.

We want clean and healthy public spaces that we can pass down to the next generation rather than complaining about or denying the damage being done. We want to build financial security through good paying jobs rather than blocking the industries that can transform our society and balloon the middle class.

We can have all of this and more if we organize for it now.

We are Californians from all different backgrounds – from business to workers, from disenchanted political organizers to unaffiliated and disaffected voters. We are ready to solve the most pressing challenges facing our state, but our first step is to create a political voice for this army of Common Sense Californians.

Common-sense

California's biggest challenges

Housing

Since 1980, housing construction has stalled in California but our population has exploded. Home buying is out of reach and rents are going up every year. We must ramp up home building to meet the needs of residents and bring down the cost of living.

200,000 built
2.5 million homes

Homelessness

California accounts for 28% of the country’s entire homeless population and more than 50% of the unsheltered homeless individuals. The homeless population in the Bay Area has grown four times faster than the overall regional population since 2010.

200,000 built
2.5 million homes

Crime

The homicide rate rate for some of California’s largest cities – Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco – increased by about 17% in 2021; and none of these even approach the overall per capita crime rates of places like Stockton, San Bernardino, Compton, and Richmond. Californians across the state report feeling unsafe as one of their biggest concerns and reasons why the Golden State is becoming increasingly unlivable.

Drought

Every year we see fires spread larger and watering restrictions become more severe, but the response to address climate change and resource consumption remains single minded and half hearted: consume less gas and use less water. California cannot survive without better water management and climate mitigation. From desalination to clean energy sources like solar, wind, green hydrogen, biomass, or geothermal – there are common sense solutions that already exist if our leaders invested in building rather than political jockeying and finger pointing.

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News

Bear Essentials October 25th: What’s Happening Across California This Week
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Bear Essentials October 18th: Did you see the sky?
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Bear Essentials October 12th: Some are winning, others losing
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