In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We know that sitting on the sidelines in times of racial injustice is unacceptable. As Innovation Economy CEOs, through the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, we are humbled and challenged by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words of wisdom and life of service. We must stand up for what is right and speak out against what is wrong. Racism is wrong.
The brutal and senseless death of George Floyd is deplorable to each of us, and made even more intolerable when added to the many other acts of violence against people of color in communities across our country.
We stand with the Black community for whom this is a particularly painful time. We rise up in support of organizations dedicated to racial justice, peaceful action and economic equality. We applaud the efforts of the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, the African American Community Services Agency and so many others who have served as the voice for the voiceless.
As CEOs and members of our Bay Area business community, we recognize that words must be accompanied by deeds. In the days and weeks ahead, we pledge united action to eradicate racism with other community leaders in substantive and specific ways, such as:
Awareness & Equity: Silicon Valley executives and our employees have much to learn from a deeper dialogue with our communities of color and underserved communities. By increasing our awareness and coming together, we can build bridges and increase our level of collective understanding of the challenges that exist.
Transparency & Accountability: Silicon Valley’s innovation economy can play a deeper, positive and proactive role in using data to offer information on the ways in which law enforcement professionals can best serve and protect all of our communities, in particular our communities of color, and live up to the highest standards of integrity and service.
Policy & Community: Silicon Valley employers can strengthen our focus on systemic areas of ingrained bias, to broaden opportunities for all of our communities; including education and workforce preparation; bridging the digital divide, battling food insecurity; embracing environmental justice; fighting for fair housing as well as championing transit and health equity.
We recognize that there will always be people who prefer to divide us. We stand in solidarity with the vast majority of citizens who share our desire to unite us. As Nelson Mandela reminds us, “There is no such thing as Part Freedom.” Freedom and Justice in America must be provided to us all, not just enjoyed by the few. Together, we can rise up for a better America, and a more inclusive Silicon Valley.
– The Silicon Valley Leadership Group & Members | June 3, 2020
Carl Guardino, CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Bill McDermott, CEO, ServiceNow
Brad Tilden, CEO and Chairman, Alaska Airlines
Lisa Su, President & CEO, AMD
Vintage Foster, CEO, AMF Media Group
Gary Dickerson, President & CEO, Applied Materials
Sharon Ryan, President & Publisher, Bay Area News Group
Dan Ammann, CEO, Cruise
Ibi Krukrubo, Managing Partner, EY
Alexander Hardy, CEO, Genentech
Enrique Lores, CEO, HP Inc.
Tom Fallon, CEO, Infinera
Apoorva Mehta, Founder & CEO, Instacart
Gary Guthart, CEO, Intuitive
Rick Wallace, CEO, KLA
Bracken Darrell, CEO, Logitech
Paul A. King, President & CEO,
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital/Stanford Children’s Health
Alan Lowe, President & CEO, Lumentum
Logan Green, Co-Founder & CEO, Lyft
Matt Murphy, President & CEO, Marvell
Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO, Micron
George Kurian, CEO, NetApp
Bastian Lehmann, Co-Founder & CEO, Postmates
Charles Giancarlo, CEO, Pure Storage
Jed York, CEO, San Francisco 49ers
Father Kevin O’Brien, President & CEO, Santa Clara University
Erica J. Rogers, President & CEO, Silk Road Medical, Inc.
Tom Werner, CEO, SunPower
Dennis Polk, President & CEO, Synnex
Aart de Geus, Chairman & Co-CEO, Synopsys, Inc.
Dan Streetman, CEO, TIBCO Software
David Goeckeler, CEO, Western Digital
Aneel Bhusri, CEO, Workday
Victor Peng, CEO, Xilinx
Sonu Ratra, President, Akraya
Amar Panchal, CEO, Akraya Inc.
Ben Minicucci, President & COO, Alaska Airlines
Hannah Kain, President & CEO, Alom
Lonnie Coplen, CEO, ARC
James Gutierrez, CEO, Aura
Chris Urmson, CEO, Aurora Innovation
Jim Chirico, President & CEO, Avaya
Catherine Zimmermann, CEO, BauHaus
Michael Blach, President & CEO, Blach Construction
KR Sridhar, CEO, Bloom Energy
Frank Mycroft, Co-Founder & CEO, Booster Fuels
Joseph C. Davis, Chairman, North America Boston Consulting Group
Matt Mahan, CEO, Brigade Group, Inc.
Martin Kropelnicki, President & CEO, California Water Service Group
Barry Cinnamon, CEO, Cinnamon Solar
Bob Fickett, President & CEO, Communications & Power Industries LLC
Russell Spektor, CEO, Dataknox Solutions, Inc.
Dan Woods, CEO, El Camino Health
Surya Panditi, President & CEO, Enel X North America, Inc.
Alan Chiu, CEO, Enya.ai
David Chun, CEO & Founder, Equilar
Denise F. Noldon, Acting President, Evergreen Valley College
Brian Dorcy, CEO, Excite Credit Union
Geoff Tate, CEO, Flex Logix Technologies, Inc.
Reymundo C. Espinoza, CEO, Gardner Health Services
Kathleen Rose, Superintendent/President,
Gavilan Community College District
Jonathan Nelson, Founder & CEO, Hackers/Founders
Patrick Harshman, CEO, Harmonic
Kathleen King, CEO, Healthier Kids Foundation
Sheila Janakos, CEO, Healthy Horizons
Antonio F. Neri, President & CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Ken Goldman, President, Hillspire
Ford Tamer, CEO, Inphi Corporation
Tim Archer, President & CEO, Lam Research
Julia Hu, CEO & Co-Founder, Lark
Alex Lofton, Co-Founder, Landed
Shannon Miller, Founder & CEO, Mainspring
Stefan Heck, CEO & Co-Founder, Nauto
Stacy Owen, President & General Manager,
NBC Bay Area/ Telemundo 48
Donna Dubinsky, CEO, Numenta, Inc.
Ahmad Wani, Co-Founder & CEO, One Concern
Eric Stang, President & CEO, Ooma
Raul Vazquez, CEO, Oportun
Bill Meeker, President, Palmer College of Chiropractic
Maureen O’Connor, President, Palo Alto University
John Kibarian, CEO, PDF Solutions
Steve Boyd, CEO, Peloton Technology, Inc.
Greg Woock, CEO/ Founder, Pinger
Ron Gonzales, President & CEO, Presencia, LLC
Tomi Ryba, CEO, Regional Medical Center San Jose
Mary Huss, President & Publisher, San Francisco Business Times
Christine M. Tomcala, CEO, Santa Clara Family Health Plan
Rob Sadow, CEO & Co-Founder, Scoop Technologies, Inc.
Mike Sinyard, CEO & Founder, Specialized Bicycle Components
Rob Steinberg, Chairman, Steinberg Hart
Adrian Ridner, Founder & CEO, Study.com
Lou Ramondetta, President, Surplus Service
Lizz Vilardo, CEO, Sutter Health Bay Area Foundations
Michael Hurlston, President & CEO, Synaptics Corporation
Arlene Inch, Chair, TransPak, Inc.
Bert Inch, CEO, TransPak, Inc.
P.K. Agarwal, Dean, UCSC Extension – University of California Santa Cruz
Devin Hampton, CEO, UtilityAPI
Dr. Alastair Hood, CEO, Verdafero
Rao Mulpuri, President & CEO, View
Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder & CEO, Voyage
Jes Pedersen, President & CEO, Webcor
William Hadaya, President, WMH Corporation
Eric Raff, CEO, XL Construction
Aicha Evans, CEO, Zoox
Dr. Jesse Levinson, Co-Founder & CTO, Zoox
Fumiyasu Hirose, Vice President & General Manager, All Nippon Airways
Oscar Gonzales, Vice President of Government Relations, Aura
Michael Turpin, Chief Revenue Officer, Bay Area News Group
Marc Casto, Sr. VP West Cost, Casto Travel
John Gauder, Regional Vice President, Comcast
Elizabeth Conroy, Director of Real Property, DSI
Travis Kiyota, SVP, Global Policy & Public Affairs, East West Bank
Courtney Jenkins, Vice President & General Manager, Engie
Dan Gordon, Director of Brewing Operations, Gordon Biersch
Tony Perazzo, West Region Managing Partner, Grant Thornton
Cassi Janakos, COO, Healthy Horizons
Laura Guio, GM – Global Cisco Alliance, IBM Global Markets
Richard T. Ogawa, General Counsel, Inphi Corporation
Darren Snellgrove, Global CFO Innovation Center, Johnson & Johnson
Chris Boyd, Senior Vice President & Area Manager, Kaiser Permanente
Cheree McAlpine, Chief Legal Officer, Lumileds
Christopher Metzger, SVP & Division Manager – Northern California, Mott MacDonald
Joe Paluska, CMO, One Concern
Vikrum Aiyer, Vice President of Global Public Policy, Postmates
Jared Shawlee, Chief Operating Officer, San Jose Earthquakes
Alan Marks, Chief Communications Officer, ServiceNow
Paul Davis, Chief Legal Officer, Xperi
Brian Luis, Site Director, Year Up Bay Area
Ron Lopes, Silicon Valley Managing Partner, KPMG
Jim Neesen, Managing Partner, Connor Group
Cliff Burnette, SVP and CHRO, Rambus
Tony Xu, Co-Founder & CEO, Doordash
Doug Merritt, CEO, Splunk
William (Bill) Johnson, CEO, PG&E
Thomas McCabe, Chief Country Officer, DBS Bank
Rob Painter, CEO, Trimble
Eric Houser, Executive Vice President, Wells Fargo
Greg Becker, CEO, Silicon Valley Bank
Eric Thornberg, CEO, San Jose Water Company
Stella Li, President, BYD Motors
Jesper Andersen, CEO, Infoblox
Janet Lamkin, California President, United Airlines