{"id":41742,"date":"2017-08-19T12:21:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T12:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=41742"},"modified":"2017-08-19T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T12:21:16","slug":"trump-tech-advisory-board-hit-defections-charlottesville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/trump-tech-advisory-board-hit-defections-charlottesville.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump tech advisory board hit by defections after Charlottesville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump tech advisory board hit by defections after Charlottesville<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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A new wave of resignations has hit the Commerce Department’s “digital economy” board as private sector advisers quit in protest of statements President Trump made about the violence in Charlottesville.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than half of the members of the 15-person Digital Economy Board of Advisors have quit, according to Politico. The board was set up last year by the Obama administration to guide the federal government on the digital economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The departures come on the heels of executive defections from two business groups advising the White House, which then dissolved them both.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is the responsibility of leaders to take action and lift up each and every American. Our leaders must unequivocally denounce bigotry, racism, sexism, hate, and violence,” Mozilla executive chairman Mitchell Baker said in a resignation letter. Mozilla is the maker of the Firefox Web browser.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, stepped down Friday from the board of advisers, according to Microsoft.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe board is the fourth to unravel this week after a cascade of CEOs quit the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum. In response, the president said on Twitter that he was disbanding both groups. All 17 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Committee also resigned their posts this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The flurry of resignations sends a troubling message for a president who has cultivated a pro-business image and has sought to surround himself with CEOs in high-level meetings at the White House and in Trump Tower.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the Digital Economy Board was set up to \u201cprovide recommendations on ways to advance economic growth and opportunity in the digital age.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point during the Obama administration, the committee was stacked with heavy hitters from the tech world including Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube and John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft. They no longer sit on the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

The others who resigned this week include David L. Cohen, senior vice president and chief diversity officer at Comcast; Zo\u00eb Baird, president and CEO of the Markle Foundation; Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank; Corey Thomas, president and CEO of cybersecurity firm Rapid7; Mindy Grossman, CEO of Weight Watchers; Marta Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports; Sonia Katyal, chancellor\u2019s professor of law at UC Berkeley; and Oisin Hanrahan, co-founder and CEO of Handy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Resignation letters did not name Trump but made clear private sector advisers were responding to his remarks in Charlottesville.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There must never be equivocation in denouncing hate, bigotry, violence and racism,” Baird said in her resignation letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source-\u00a0https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/tech\/2017\/08\/18\/trump-tech-advisory-board-hit-defections-after-charlottesville\/581795001\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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