Wall Street and corporate America aren’t exactly known for embracing uncertainty, a trait that could play a role as more than 90 business leaders announced Friday their support for Kamala Harris for president, saying the vice president would “continue to promote fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability and a healthy business environment.”
Electing the Democrat “is the best way to support the continued strength, security and reliability of our democracy and our economy,” current and former business leaders – including a former professional basketball player – said Friday in jointly endorsing the Democratic presidential nominee.
Signatories to the letter aired on CBS News include billionaire Mark Cuban, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and former 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and director of the Emerson Collective, is also endorsing Harris, along with former executives from American Express, Merck, Starbucks and Yahoo.
CNBC was first to report the letter of support for Harris.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also has the backing of a number of prominent business figures and investors, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, casino mogul Steve Wynn and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, among others.
We support the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States.
Her election is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy. With Kamala Harris in the White House, the business community can be confident that they will have a president who wants American industries to thrive. As President Biden’s partner, Vice President Harris has a proven track record of championing measures to boost business investment in the United States and ensure that American companies can compete and succeed in the global marketplace. She will continue to champion fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a healthy business environment, and will work to ensure every American has the opportunity to pursue the American Dream.
Roger Altman, Founder and Senior Chairman of Evercore
Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream
Carl Bass, former CEO of Autodesk
Tom Bernstein, President and Co-Founder of Chelsea Piers
Afsaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of Rock Creek
Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner
W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Bendix and Unisys
Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, former CEO of Sam’s Club; former CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance; former COO of Starbucks
Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox; President of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company
Ken Chenault, Chairman and CEO of General Catalyst and former Chairman and CEO of American Express
Peter Chernin, Co-Founder and Partner of TCG
Tony Coles, Chairman and former CEO of Cerevel
Tim Collins, Founder, CEO and Senior Managing Director of Ripplewood
Ron Conway, Founder and Managing Partner of SV Angel
W. Don Cornwell, co-founder, former chairman and CEO of Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Robert Crandall, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines
Mark Cuban, co-founder of costplusdrugs.com
Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Sundial Group of Companies
Barry Diller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC and senior executive of Expedia; former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox, Inc.
John Doerr, President of Kleiner Perkins
Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
Eugene J. Duffy, investment banker
Blair Effron, Partner and Co-Founder of Centerview Partners
José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group
David P. Fialkow, Co-Founder and CEO of General Catalyst
Anne Finucane, former vice president of Bank of America
Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Managing Director of EL Rothschild
Ken Frazier, former executive chairman and CEO of Merck
Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Three Cairns Group; Co-Founder of Centerbridge Partners
Chad Gifford, former chairman of Bank of America
David Grain, Founder and CEO of Grain Management
Logan Green, President and Former CEO of Lyft
Daniel J. Halpern, Co-Founder and CEO of Jackmont Hospitality
Bruce Heyman, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Managing Director of Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs
Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments; President of Starbucks
Roger Hochschild, former CEO and Chairman of Discover Financial Services
Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn
Glenn Hutchins, President of North Island or Co-Founder of Silver Lake
Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy
Tony James, former CEO and executive vice chairman of Blackstone; founder of Jefferson River Capital
David Jacobson, Senior Advisor and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of BMO Financial Group; former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises
Brad Karp, President of Paul, Weiss
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder and Managing Partner of WndrCo
Ellen Kullman, President and CEO of Carbon3; former President and CEO of DuPont
Todd Lachman, Founder of Sovos Brands
Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Ripple
Jeff Lawson, former CEO of Twilio
Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Aaron Levie, Co-Founder and CEO of Box
Ed Lewis, former Chairman and CEO of Essence Communications, co-founder of Essence Magazine
William M. Lewis, Jr.
Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, Inc., former CEO of Sony Entertainment
Tracy V. Maitland, President and Chief Investment Officer of Advent Capital Management
Helena Maus, CEO of Archetype and Marker Collective
Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, former CEO of Yahoo!
TJ McGill, Co-Founder of Evergreen Pacific Partners and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-Founder of Rwanda Girls Initiative
Danny Meyer, Founder and Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group
Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman of Lazard
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Asana
Alan Mulally, former Ford CEO
Anne Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox
James Murdoch, founder and CEO of Lupa Systems; former CEO of 21st Century Fox
Laxman Narasimhan, former CEO of Starbucks
Indra Nooyi, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
Peter Orszag, former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners
Sean Parker, founder of Napster; founder and president of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Charles Phillips, co-founder and managing partner of Recognize; former chairman of Oracle and former CEO of Infor;
Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and President of Emerson Collective
Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Founder and Chairman of PSP Partners
Vasant Prabhu, former CFO and Vice President of Visa
Spencer Rascoff, Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; Co-Founder and Former CEO of Zillow
Renjen Punishment
Rachel Romer, Founder of Guild Education
Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Advisor at Centerview Partners
Kevin P. Ryan, co-founder of MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics and Transcend Therapeutics
Faiza J. Saeed
Dan Schulman, former chairman and CEO of PayPal
Jim Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco
Dan Springer, former CEO of Docusign
Tom Steyer, Founder and Former Senior Managing Partner of Farallon Capital
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp
Scott Stuart, Founder and Managing Partner of Sageview Capital
Larry Summers, 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani
Daniel Weiss, co-founder and managing partner of the Angeleno Group
Steve Westly, Founder and Managing Partner of the Westly Group
Ron Williams, former CEO of Aetna
Robert Wolf, former CEO of UBS Americas
