More than a dozen tech groups extended an olive branch to Donald Trump on Wednesday, penning a joint letter to the president-elect congratulating him on his win and offering recommendations for working with the tech sector.
“We stand ready to help your Administration tap into 21st century innovation to achieve prosperity for the nation,” read the letter from a coalition of 17 tech trade groups
{mosads}The letter was signed by leaders from trade associations including the Information Technology Industry Council and Internet Association, which represent companies such as Google, Facebook and Intel.
“We recognize a critical early step in achieving your goals of moving the country forward in a productive way will be identifying the right people for critical positions,” the trade association leaders wrote.
“We would welcome the opportunity to meet with your leadership team to discuss our policy and personnel ideas in greater depth.”
Their recommendations included support for investing technology infrastructure and tax and regulatory reform to spur job growth.
Some tech leaders previously extended a hand to Trump after his victory, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, who wrote a letter to the president-elect. Wednesday’s letter marks the tech sector’s first major joint outreach to Trump.
During the campaign, Trump fared poorly among tech leaders such as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and venture capital icon Marc Andreessen, who lambasted him. Trump also returned dismal fundraising numbers in Silicon Valley.
Peter Thiel, of PayPal and subsequent venture capital success, was a public holdout in the tech area. Thiel now has a major role on the president-elect’s transition team and has been recruiting other tech leaders to join him.