Dive Brief:
- George A. Polisner, a senior executive at Oracle Corp., resigned when the company’s CEO, Safra Catz, publicly vowed to support Trump and later joined his transition team, says TechCrunch.
- Polisner, who held various positions at Oracle, publicly announced his resignation. In a rare move by corporate-executive standards, he explained the true reason for his departure and expressed his disapproval of Catz’s support for Trump.
- In a letter published on LinkedIn, Polisner criticized Trump for inciting fear and hatred against people of color, immigrants and Muslims; planning to undo Medicare and Social Security; and disrespecting Gold Star military families.
Dive Insight:
Polisner is one of the few business leaders from either political party to publicly oppose and criticize President-elect Donald Trump. Most business leaders have either vowed to support him or taken a wait-and-see attitude about his presidency.
Notably, this isn't the first sign of upset in the tech industry. Some of IBM's leadership filed a petition online chiding IBM’s chief for reaching out to Trump, whose racist attitudes they say run counter to the company’s embrace of diversity and multiculturalism.
It should be noted that the tech industry itself has been struggling to maintain diversity, though there have been marked improvements in recent years.