Wall Street and corporate America are not exactly known for embracing uncertainty, a characteristic possibly at play as more than 90 business leaders on Friday announced they are backing Kamala Harris for president, saying the vice president would “continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability and a sound business environment.”
The Democrat’s election “is the best way to support the continued strength, security and reliability of our democracy and economy,” the current and former corporate heads — a former professional basketball player among them — stated on Friday in jointly endorsing the Democratic presidential nominee.
Among those signing the letter released to CBS News: 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 head of the Emerson Collective, is also supporting Harris, along with the former heads of American Express, Merck, Starbucks and Yahoo.
CNBC first reported on the letter supporting Harris.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also has support from a number of prominent corporate figures and investors. They include Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, casino tycoon Steve Wynn and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, among others.
We endorse Kamala Harris’s election 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 it will have a President who wants American industries to thrive. As a partner to President Biden, Vice President Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market. She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
Roger Altman, Founder & 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 & 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 both 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; Chairwoman of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company
Ken Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst and former Chairman and CEO of American Express
Peter Chernin, Co-Founder & Partner of TCG
Tony Coles, Chairperson & former CEO of Cerevel
Tim Collins, Founder, CEO, and Senior Managing Director of Ripplewood
Ron Conway, Founder & Managing Partner of SV Angel
W. Don Cornwell, Co-founder, former Chairman & CEO of Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Robert Crandall, former President and Chairman of American Airlines
Mark Cuban, Co-founder of costplusdrugs.com
Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chair of Sundial Group of Companies
Barry Diller, Chairman & Senior Executive of IAC and Senior Executive of Expedia; Former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox, Inc.
John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins
Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
Eugene J. Duffy, Investment Banker
Blair Effron, Partner & Co-Founder of Centerview Partners
José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group
David P. Fialkow, Co-Founder & Managing Director of General Catalyst
Anne Finucane, former Vice Chair of Bank of America
Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive of E.L. Rothschild
Ken Frazier, former Executive Chairman, President & CEO of Merck
Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Principal 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, Chairman 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 at Goldman Sachs
Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments; Chairman of Starbucks
Roger Hochschild, former CEO and President of Discover Financial Services
Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn
Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island or Co-Founder of Silver Lake
Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy
Tony James, former President, CEO & Executive Vice Chairman of Blackstone; Founder of Jefferson River Capital
David Jacobson, Senior Advisor and former Vice Chair of BMO Financial Group; Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO, Magic Johnson Enterprises
Brad Karp, Chairman of Paul, Weiss
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder & Managing Partner of WndrCo
Ellen Kullman, President and CEO of Carbon3; former Chair 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 & CEO of Box
Ed Lewis, former Chairman and CEO of Essence Communications, co-founder 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!
T.J. McGill, Co-Founder of Evergreen Pacific Partners and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-Founder of Rwanda Girls Initiative
Danny Meyer, Founder & Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group
Raymond J. McGuire, President of Lazard
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Asana
Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford
Anne Mulcahy, former Chairman and CEO of Xerox
James Murdoch, Founder & 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 United States Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners
Sean Parker, Founder of Napster; Founder and Chairman of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Charles Phillips, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Recognize; former President 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-Chair of Visa
Spencer Rascoff, Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; Co-Founder and former CEO of Zillow
Punit Renjen
Rachel Romer, Founder of Guild Education
Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners
Kevin P. Ryan, Co-founder, MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics, and Transcend Therapeutics
Faiza J. Saeed
Dan Schulman, former President & CEO of PayPal
Jim Sinegal, Co-Founder and Former CEO of Costco
Dan Springer, former CEO of Docusign
Tom Steyer, Founder and former Co-Senior-Managing-Partner of Farallon Capital
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp
Scott Stuart, Founding & Managing Partner of Sageview Capital
Larry Summers, 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder & CEO of Chobani
Daniel Weiss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 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