By Ross Kerber
Oct 23 (Reuters) - Generally CEOs hate talking politics for fear of alienating customers, investors or employees with different views.
This year various business executives are backing U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic party's candidate for the White House against former President Donald Trump. Business leaders have traditionally leaned Republican and Trump, the Republican nominee, does have some CEOs in his camp.
So far the largest industry trade groups have stayed neutral at least in their public rhetoric. To get a sense of things I spoke with Box CEO Aaron Levie, a Harris supporter. You can find my interview from Monday linked below.
You will also find links to stories like one by my colleague who visited the Three Mile Island nuclear plant ahead of its planned revival, and another about a plan by New York City's comptroller to end certain fund investments in pipelines and LNG terminals over climate concerns.
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Box Inc CEO Levie makes the business case for Kamala Harris U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has won support from business leaders including Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Evercore
founder Roger Altman, and kind of, probably, maybe JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
Yet it's still hard to parse out exactly where the largest company CEOs stand from their public statements and those of top trade groups, which avoid picking sides.
To make sense of things I spoke with Harris supporter Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud content management platform Box Inc , on Monday. You can read the interview in this week's column here.
Chamber of Commerce urges patience for election results
After I locked up the Levie interview, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce late on Tuesday counseled Americans to have
patience while votes are counted
in the Nov. 5 election, citing the likely closeness of the contest and the variety of voting and vote-counting procedures.
In a message on its website the top U.S. business trade group said that "we may not know the outcome as quickly as we would like. That’s cause for preparation and patience – but not concern."
Separately a Chamber spokesperson told me it would continue its tradition of not endorsing a presidential candidate. "Our role is to help the election winner in implementing policies that will grow the economy and create opportunities for all Americans," said the spokesperson.
The Chamber's comments didn't fulfill the wishes of some Harris supporters who have called on business leaders to endorse her or
oppose Trump
.
But the Chamber did warn of the risks of online disinformation such as reports of ballot fraud. In an "election primer" document accompanying the statement, the Chamber noted various delays in finalizing the results of prior U.S. elections.
It warned that "Those wishing to undermine our nation and our electoral system, including foreign governments, often attempt to spread disinformation online. This can include reports of voter suppression, cyber breaches of voting systems, ballot fraud, and other problems."
"These disinformation campaigns are designed to undermine trust in our election system and the final election results," the primer states.
Company News Mike Jeffries, the former longtime chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been criminally charged with sex trafficking and prostitution involving dozens of men.
The top U.S. consumer finance watchdog on Tuesday unveiled long-awaited rules that would make it easier for consumers to switch between financial services providers, a move the agency said was aimed at boosting competition.
HSBC , merged some operations and split its geographic footprint into East and West in a sweeping restructuring under new CEO Georges Elhedery that also included the appointment of the bank's first female finance chief.
On my radar As a followup to last week's look at nuclear waste, don't miss this story by my colleague Laila Kearney about her visit to Constellation Energy's Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
A new annual survey by nonprofit researcher Just Capital found growing numbers of respondents, across political ideologies, agreed that CEOs should speak out on social issues if the matter relates to their business - 52% overall this year, up from 32% in 2020. In contrast, 48% said CEOs should take a stand on all social issues, down from 68% in 2020.
Citing climate concerns, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander outlined plans to end future private market investments by pension funds in things like pipelines and LNG terminals.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio)
((ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com; (617) 412 0093;))
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