Love him or hate him, you have to admit that President-elect Donald Trump has wasted no time in making his cabinet picks and moving on stimulating the economy. Trump has scheduled a “tech summit” at Trump Tower in Manhattan this Wednesday with numerous tech leaders to discuss how the administration can work to reform the corporate tax code, get better trade deals set up with other countries, and reduce regulation. Among the expected attendees? Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Expected to attend the event are Cook, Alphabet (Google) CEO Larry Page and chairman Eric Schmidt, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and several others. Snubbing the event are critics of Trump’s administration, including Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and outspoken tech investor Mark Cuban.
Will Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey attend? There’s no certain answer yet, nor has Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk indicated if he’s going to be heading to NYC on Wednesday. It’s interesting that Jeff Bezos will be attending, considering how the Washington Post — which Bezos owns — has been a harsh critic of the President-elect.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz was vocal in her support of the summit and will be in attendance. In a statement, Catz said that “I plan to tell the President-elect that we are with him and will help in any way we can. If he can reform the tax code, reduce regulation and negotiate better trade deals, the US technology industry will be stronger and more competitive than ever.”
