"They are dialed in. They always were, and I think we're going to see big differences," said tech entrepreneur Jon Fisher, CEO of CrowdOptic and a member of the President-elect's National Finance Council.
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Fisher co-hosted two Bay Area fundraisers for Joe Biden last fall, prior to the pandemic, tapping into a network of tech colleagues, many of them from start-ups and small companies. Those events gave them an opportunity to assess his interest in and knowledge of technology after the formal program had ended.
"It was a smaller room," recalled Fisher. "It was only 50 to 60 of us after his speech. He went around. He talked with everyone. He heard their ideas. It was remarkable to see him operate with such care."
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That gives Fisher hope that the President-elect will study the key issues that matter to tech and support them. Issues such as immigration policy, which impacts the ability to attract top talent from overseas. Privacy. And perhaps the thorniest of all, antitrust action initiated against Google under the Trump Justice Department that could snarl other dominant companies.
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The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, with wide company membership across the Valley, looks at Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as an ally of long-standing. She could help the Valley to tackle the persistent lack of Black people and women in tech leadership roles.
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"It's about innovation and market share that's lost when our leadership teams don't reflect the communities that we serve," said Ahmad Thomas, the new CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. "I know she gets it. I know she leads from a place of authenticity."
Thomas is also hopeful that Biden's belief in science will also lead to a change in climate change policy, an important issue in the Valley.
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"We truly hope that we'll be looking at data, looking at the climate and how it's changing, seeing the threat, which is a real threat to our economy as well as our long-term livelihood," he said.
A reboot could be on the horizon.