The Silicon Valley was never a fan of Trump’s presidency and once again, they are making their disagreement heard to the White House. Soon after the White House announced its controversial travel ban last week, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was under pressure during his regular meeting at Uber headquarter in San Francisco when he was encountered by at least two employee asking what it takes for him to quit the advisory council. Like Mr. Kalanick, Peter Thiel, who is on the board of Facebook, has been under pressure for his role in the Trump administration.
Thanks to Mr. Kalanick’s involvement in the Advisory Board, Uber’s arch-rival, Lyft, is happily taking customers away from Uber as there have been over 200,000 Uber customers deleting their accounts recently.
As a result of all the internal and external pressure on him and Uber, Mr. Kalanick has exited the advisory council and in his letter voiced his support for refugees and a open immigration reform. Although it may be his business interest that motivated Mr. Kalanick to join the Presidential Advisory Council in the first place, like many other tech company CEOs also on the Council, the disfavor of Trump administration’s policy might harm his personal reputation as well as Uber’s business interests in the end. So far, the Silicon Valley is still debating the way that works best for the companies to deal with a Trump administration.
Mike Isaac, Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council After Criticism, NEW YORK TIMES, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/technology/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-trump-advisory-council.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront (last visited February 3, 2017).