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This Is Who Left Trump's Councils, And Who Stayed Until The Bitter End
On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced that he would be disbanding both of his major business advisory councils — the Strategic & Policy Forum and the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative — following numerous resignations. A number of CEOs left the councils after Trump's responses to Saturday's white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Trump tweeted that he was disbanding the councils after a dozen prominent CEOs decided to abandon them during a Wednesday morning conference call. But who was on Trump's CEO councils when they first formed — and who was still left before they were disbanded?
The New York Times created a list of member companies on both councils, and the list indicates that eight CEOs resigned after Trump's inadequate response to events in Charlottesville. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk resigned back when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, and he was in the unique position of being on both councils. Disney CEO Bob Iger also resigned at that time, and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down after Trump's efforts to curb immigration from Muslim majority countries. A few other executives left the councils when they no longer occupied their positions at their companies.
Prior to Trump's announcement about disbanding the councils, many executives were prepared to leave, because staying to advise Trump implied that they were complicit in his insufficient condemnation of white supremacy. They no longer have to worry about leaving, because there are no councils left to leave, but you can find a list below of who was on the councils to begin with.
The names in bold designate those executives who resigned prior to the disbanding of the councils, while the names in italics designate business officials who no longer occupy executive roles at their companies.
Manufacturing Jobs Initiative:
- Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson
- Andrew Liveris, CEO of The Dow Chemical Company
- Bill Brown, CEO of Harris Corporation
- Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel
- Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup Company
- Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of The Boeing Company
- Doug Oberhelman, former CEO of Caterpillar Inc.
- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc.
- Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies
- Inge Thulin, CEO of 3M
- Jeff Fettig, CEO of Whirlpool Corporation
- Jeff Immelt, Chairman of General Electric
- Jim Kamsickas, CEO of Dana Incorporated
- John Ferriola, CEO of Nucor Corporation
- Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co.
- Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour
- Klaus Kleinfeld, former CEO of Arconic
- Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin
- Mario Longhi, former CEO of U.S. Steel
- Mark Fields, former CEO of Ford Motor Company
- Mark Sutton, CEO of International Paper
- Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies
- Michael Polk, CEO of Newell Brands
- Richard Kyle, CEO of The Timken Company
- Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO
- Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing
- Thea Lee, Deputy Chief of Staff of the AFL-CIO
- Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning Inc.
Strategic & Policy Forum:
- Adebayo “Bayo” Ogunlesi, Goldman Sachs Board of Directors
- Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company
- Daniel Yergin, Chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates
- Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart
- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc.
- Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM
- Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo
- Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
- Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase
- Jim McNerney, former CEO of The Boeing Company
- Kevin Warsh, Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution
- Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock
- Mark Weinberger, CEO of Ernst & Young
- Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors Company
- Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners LLC
- Rich Lesser, CEO of Boston Consulting Group
- Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of The Blackstone Group
- Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic
- Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber
