IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will remain on President Donald Trump’s business advisory council despite disagreeing with the administration’s stance on the environment.
Her decision is in contrast to a few other of the group’s members who stepped down in protest on Thursday immediately after President Trump decided to withdraw the U.S. From the Paris climate agreement. Those executives were Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla (TSLA), who said that “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world;” and Disney CEO Robert Iger, who said he would resign as “a matter of principle.”
Trump created the group, called the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, shortly after being elected so he could get advice from the business world about creating jobs and lifting the economy. The group has since met in February and April.
As a matter of principle, I've resigned from the President's Council over the #ParisAgreement withdrawal.
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) June 1, 2017
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk shared Iger’s sentiment, saying:
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
IBM (IBM) was also dismayed with Trump’s decision, saying that it supports “U.S. Participation in the Paris Agreement,” and that it plans to “continue its decades-long work to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions and will continue to help our clients do so as well.” But the difference of opinions with the White House were not enough for Rometty to pull out.
The business technology giant told various media outlets this week that it believes “there is value” in engaging with the White House.
“We believe we can make a constructive contribution by having a direct dialogue with the Administration — as we do with governments around the world,” IBM said in a statement.
Some of the organizations that are also staying on board Trump’s business council include General Motors (GM), the Cleveland Clinic, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), and investment firm Blackrock.
Coins2Day contacted IBM to elaborate on the company’s position and will update this story if it responds.
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In February, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned from the president’s business council after receiving intense criticism for his participation in light of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies.
Separately, several high-profile tech companies like Apple, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Salesforce, Google, and Facebook that are not member of the business council wrote a public letter to the White House calling on administration support the Paris agreement. The firms, which did not include IBM, bought full-page ads in The New York Times, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal in the days before Trump announced his decision.
