SACRAMENTO – Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. this week announced the appointments of Assembly Speaker Emeritus John A. Pérez and Long Beach City College Superintendent-President Eloy Ortiz Oakley to the University of California Board of Regents.

“John and Eloy bring a wealth of experience and an extraordinary capacity to dig into the complexities of our great university system,” said Gov. Brown. “Their work has demonstrated a deep commitment to the students of California.”

John A. Pérez, 45, has served as a member of the California State Assembly since 2008 and was elected speaker in 2010, marking the first time in American history an openly gay man was ever elected to serve in that position.

As speaker, Pérez’s collaborative efforts with the governor and his colleagues helped eliminate the structural deficit, balance California’s revenues and expenditures and produce a strong but modest multi-billion dollar reserve.

Pérez has been a longtime advocate for affordable higher education and authored the Middle Class Scholarship Act, signed in 2013, to significantly reduce student fees for middle class students at the University of California and California State University whose families earn too much to qualify for significant financial aid but not enough to afford college without significant student loan debt.

Pérez is a member of the Democratic National Committee and served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Pérez was a member of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles and the California League of Conservation Voters Board of Directors and was elected by his fellow Speakers from across the country to serve as president of the National Speakers Conference.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, 49, of Long Beach, has been the superintendent and president of Long Beach City College since 2007, where he was executive vice president of administrative services from 2004 to 2006 and was vice president of administrative services from 2002 to 2004.

He was vice president of college services at Oxnard College from 2001 to 2002 and an assistant vice president at Keenan and Associates from 1999 to 2001.

Oakley was a program coordinator and adjunct instructor at Golden West College from 1994 to 1999 and was a manager of risk services at Coast Community College District from 1993 to 1999.

He is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Council of La Raza. Oakley is a board member of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, the American Association of Community Colleges and the St. Mary’s Medical Center.

He earned a master of business administration degree from the University of California, Irvine.

These positions require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Both Pérez and Oakley are Democrats.