Three alums from Cornell, including one who donated $133 million to the school, have joined 145 tech industry leaders in signing a letter which says a Donald Trump presidency “would be a disaster for innovation.”
Former Qualcomm CEO Irvin M. Jacobs, Celmatix founder and CEO Piraye Yurttas Beim, and NextEV USA CEO Padmasree Warrior accompanied other “researchers, entrepreneurs and engineers” in blasting the GOP presidential candidate.
The letter states that “successful innovation hinges on diversity and the movement of people, values which […] are at odds with Trump’s vision for America.”
“We … believe that progressive immigration policies help us attract and retain some of the brightest minds on earth,” the letter said. “Donald Trump, meanwhile, traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women and is openly hostile to immigration.”
Trump’s “penchant to censor” and disrespect for the law would also harm the development of new technologies, according to [Color Genomics CMO Katie] Stanton.
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“The free and open exchange of ideas, including over the Internet, [is] a seed from which innovation springs,” she said.
Of the three Cornellian signatories, Jacobs has proved the most heavily involved and invested in politics, boasting a record of consistent liberal support.
Over the course of the 2012 election, Jacobs donated $2.3 million to left-leaning political groups, making him the 26th most prolific individual donor in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has also hosted fundraising events for both President Obama and Hillary Clinton — whom he has endorsed in the 2016 presidential election — according to NBC San Diego.
Jacobs, a 1954 Cornell graduate, is the donor responsible for the nine-figure gift to the school.
Are business folk now adopting the college definition of “diversity,” meaning it is valued above virtually everything? Or, is it just liberal business people who are so concerned?
Since Trump is a CEO himself, doesn’t he know what makes for a successful money-making venture — including bringing in competent people from all over? The GOP nominee, after all, is not “openly hostile to immigration.” He is against illegal immigration.
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