{"id":41770,"date":"2023-10-20T15:16:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/chief-executive-of-multi-billion-dollar-tech-giant-dumped-for-trump-open-letter-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:16:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:16:22","slug":"chief-executive-of-multi-billion-dollar-tech-giant-dumped-for-trump-open-letter-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/chief-executive-of-multi-billion-dollar-tech-giant-dumped-for-trump-open-letter-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief executive of multi-billion dollar tech giant dumped for Trump open letter – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (now president) debate during the third presidential debate on October 19. Source: Mark Ralston\/Pool via AP <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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A senior employee at computer giant IBM has quit her job and publicly condemned her former boss, in one example of what can happen when the leaders of a business choose to get involved in politics.<\/p>\n

The employee decided to resign from her position at IBM after the company\u2019s chief executive Ginni Rometty published an open letter to US President-elect Donald Trump following his election win.<\/p>\n

In her own open letter published on NewCo<\/em>, senior content strategist in IBM\u2019s corporate marketing department Elizabeth Wood said she could no longer work for a company \u201cthat would ignore the real needs of its workforce\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read more: Australian entrepreneurs have their say on what President Trump means for business<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rometty\u2019s letter congratulated Trump and outlined \u201cideas that I believe will help achieve the aspiration you articulated and that can advance a national agenda in a time of profound change\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that you are committed to help America\u2019s economy grow in ways that are good for all its people,\u201d Rometty said in her letter.<\/p>\n

In her response, Wood slammed Rometty\u2019s letter, claiming it showed \u201ca willingness to legitimise threats to our country for financial gain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour letter offered the backing of IBM\u2019s global workforce in support of his agenda that preys on marginalised people and threatens my wellbeing as a woman, a Latina and a concerned citizen,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President-elect has demonstrated contempt for immigrants, veterans, people with disabilities, Black, Latinx, Jewish, Muslim and LGBTQ communities. These groups comprise a growing portion of the company you lead, Ms. Rometty. They work every day for IBM\u2019s success and have been silenced by your words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rometty\u2019s letter offered a number of suggestions to President-elect Trump, including a focus on vocational education and \u201cnew collar\u201d jobs, taking care of veterans, and building better infrastructure to support Internet of Things integration.<\/p>\n

Rometty signs off by saying she hopes the ideas offered \u201crepresent ways that we can work together to achieve prosperity that is broadly shared in our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wood argued the future of IBM hinges on an \u201cinclusive and welcoming culture\u201d, and criticised Rometty after she did not mention the company\u2019s diverse culture in the open letter to Trump. Wood said her decision to leave IBM did not come lightly and that she is leaving without a backup offer or safety net.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do have is the knowledge that my own life\u2014and those of the several hundred thousand who serve your company worldwide\u2014are too valuable to waste at an organisation where we are not respected,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my belief that you owe your staff and the President-elect a public clarification on IBM\u2019s commitment to the protection and representation of all of its employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on SmartCompany. <\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (now president) debate during the third presidential debate on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}