Triangle’s tech links to President-elect Trump: Blackstone, IBM

The Research Triangle will have the ear of President-elect Donald Trump through two major connections: The Blackstone Group and IBM.

Trump, who will be back in North Carolina on Tuesday for a “thank you” event in Fayetteville, is going to seek advice from two major tech leaders with RTP links through an advisory group he announced on Friday. The group includes:

Ginni Rometty, chair and CEO of IBM
Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group.

IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses right here in the Triangle.

And Schwarzman stays in touch with the Triangle through the growing Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network, which recently named a new local leader.

Rometty wrote an open letter to Trump shortly after election day pledging support even though Trump has criticized Big Blue for off-shoring jobs.

“I am writing to offer ideas that I believe will help achieve the aspiration you articulated and that can advance a national agenda in a time of profound change. I do so as the leader of the nation’s largest technology employer, its leading patent creator, and the company that for more than 105 years has believed that prosperity and progress can be achieved by unleashing the potential of all people,” Rometty said in the letter.

(Read more at https://wraltechwire.com/-dear-mr-president-elect-ibm-ceo-offers-advice-to-donald-trump/16243355/#GW5fWDEXWpQE2f2x.99 )

Interestingly, Silicon Valley (huge support of Hilary Clinton) has received a cold shoulder so far.

The President’s Strategic and Policy Forum has an aim of helping drive economic growth. Its first meeting is already scheduled in early February.

Schwarzman will lead the group. And he definitely knows where the Triangle is.

More than 300 people – including many entrepreneurs, venture capitals and corporate executives – packed the American Tobacco Historic District’s Bay 7 in 2011 to find out the details behind the Blackstone Group’s efforts to boost entrepreneurship, new companies and job growth across the Triangle. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has provided the funding to grow the local effort. Schwarzman came to Durham to announce the news.

“This forum brings together CEOs and business leaders who know what it takes to create jobs and drive economic growth,” Trump said in a statement. “My administration is committed to drawing on private sector expertise and cutting the government red tape that is holding back our businesses from hiring, innovating, and expanding right here in America.”

The forum will meet “frequently” with the president to offer views on how government policy impacts growth and jobs, the statement added.

As The Associated Press noted, “Trump has been reaching into the ranks of big business and Wall Street to fill his cabinet posts. He has tapped former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary and investment banker Wilbur Ross to head the Commerce Department.”

President Barack Obama also had a similar group: The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. And Obama’s administration as well as the president came to the Triangle looking for ways to drive job growth.

Other members of Trump team include: