Corporate departures:
Three CEOs leave advisory council over Charlottesville.
WASHINGTON — Just a month ago, President Trump invited Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier to the White House, calling him one of the “great, great leaders of business in this country.” On Monday morning, Trump singled out Frazier again, this time to express his displeasure over the pharmaceutical executive’s abrupt decision to resign from the president’s American manufacturing council.
Frazier, citing a “matter of personal conscience,” said he felt “a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism” in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and Trump’s failure to quickly and explicitly condemn the white supremacists who organized the rally.
It took Trump just 54 minutes to respond, calling out Frazier among the legions of activists, celebrities and politicians from both parties expressing similar sentiments.
“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” Trump tweeted.
Frazier, one of a handful of African American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies, is just the latest corporate executive to break with the administration. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Disney chief Robert Iger stepped down from their roles on White House advisory councils following Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick, too, said he would no longer participate in a White House economic council, following an uproar in February over Trump’s travel ban.
Late Monday, Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, said on Twitter that he, too, was stepping down from the manufacturing council. “I love our country and our company and will continue to focus my efforts on inspiring every person that they can do anything through the power of sport which promotes unity, diversity and inclusion,” Plank wrote in a statement.
Hours later, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich also announced in a blog post that he was resigning from the council “to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues.”
Ever since Trump assumed office, executives have struggled to balance their desire to engage the White House on policy with the growing expectations by some that they exercise a voice on social issues — all at the risk of alienating shareholders and customers on one side or another.
Executives at giants like General Electric, Dell and Dow tried to walk that fine line Monday, saying they would continue to work with the administration, in hopes of representing their companies’ interests, even as they decried hate, bigotry and violent extremism.
But Frazier, without criticizing Trump by name, was the first to choose to part ways Monday. “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy,” Frazier said in a statement tweeted by Merck.
Some rallied to support Frazier.
“I’m thankful we have business leaders such as Ken to remind America of its better angels,” tweeted Meg Whitman, chief executive of technology services giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a Trump critic in the past.
Others criticized Frazier for undermining the president, who ultimately denounced white supremacists and neo-Nazis in remarks Monday afternoon, two days after the Charlottesville unrest.
Frazier, chief executive of Merck since 2011, has not been shy about wading into sensitive issues.
As a corporate lawyer, he took on a death-row appeal that led him to write about the injustices within the system for capital punishment. ( James Willie “Bo” Cochran’s conviction was ultimately overturned). While acting as CEO of Merck, he led a committee investigating child abuse by former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. Under his leadership, Merck announced that its charitable foundation would suspend donations to the Boy Scouts of America over its anti-gay stance at the time. The Scouts have since changed their policy.