Adam Miller, a former tech executive and co-founder of a homeless nonprofit, Thursday announced his bid for mayor of Los Angeles.
Miller enters the race as an “outsider to elective office” after spending two decades building organizations across business, technology and the nonprofit sector, according to his campaign team. He filed his declaration to run Wednesday with the City Clerk’s Office.
He founded and led Cornerstone On Demand, a workforce education company he took public as CEO. The company was sold in 2021 for $5.2 billion to a private equity firm.
Miller later helped launch initiatives to address workforce development, homelessness prevention and community resilience.
Miller’s campaign is focused on homelessness and housing, public safety, economic mobility and improving accountability and effectiveness at City Hall.
Douglas Herman, a spokesman for Bass’ campaign, in a statement described Miller as someone who made a “fortune peddling software to eliminate jobs.”
“The last thing Los Angeles needs now is another self-funder who doesn’t understand the crisis of affordability in our city,” Herman said in his statement.
He touted Mayor Karen Bass’ efforts to address housing affordability, reduce street homelessness and improvements in public safety.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Miller defended himself, saying that his “company’s software was used for training and helping employees build their skills.”
He told the Times that he would provide a loan to his campaign to start, and begin raising money like any other candidate.
Miller’s announcement comes on the same day that former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, whose 22-year-old daughter died unexpectedly last month, ended his bid to become mayor of Los Angeles.
In a statement, Beutner cited his family’s mourning over the death of Emily Beutner as the reason for ending his campaign.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who lost the 2022 election to Bass, recently announced he would not run for the office again. But he said Wednesday he was reconsidering that decision in light of a Los Angeles Times report this week that Bass may have directed the watering-down of a Palisades Fire after-action report critical of the fire department’s response to the blaze. Bass has vehemently denied the allegation.
Bass also faces challengers Spencer Pratt, a reality television personality and Palisades Fire survivor; and Rae Huang, a community organizer, among others.