Trump tech topics: Parental leave, immigrant workers, education
Leaders from technology companies reportedly had a long list of issues to bring up with the president-elect during a meeting this week.
Most of this week's meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and top technology industry executives was behind closed doors, but issues discussed included parental leave and business issues like hiring skilled immigrants, according to one report.
The meeting was a high-visibility gathering including Trump, his family members and advisers, and top executives from Apple, Google parent company Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Intel. The tech execs and Trump often had been sharply critical of each other during the campaign, but the meeting offered an opportunity to mend fences.
A short public portion of the meeting didn't tackle any meaty issues, but several arose after the press was shooed away, said a Thursday report from tech insider site Recode. Among the views from tech execs, according to the report:
- Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella discussed immigration and specifically H-1B visas to hire outsiders for skilled jobs in the US.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook pushed for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education efforts.
- Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg also pushed for STEM efforts for women and minorities and brought up the issue of parental leave, one aspect of a general Silicon Valley push to attract and retain more women.
- Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt called US government computing technology old and unsafe.
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it was hard for US businesses to operate in China.
- And Elon Musk , CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla Motors, brought up the issue of global climate change.
SpaceX and Oracle declined to comment. IBM, Intel, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.