These CEOs Made John Podesta’s Purported List of Potential Running Mates for Hillary Clinton
Tim Cook, Mary Barra, and Muhtar Kent were among those who made the first cut.
Tim Cook, Mary Barra, and Muhtar Kent purportedly were among the business leaders considered, however briefly, as vice presidential running mates for Hillary Clinton.
The disclosure comes courtesy of WikiLeaks, which has been releasing giant batches of communications purported to have come from the email account of Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta. The authenticity of the emails has not been confirmed, but the Clinton campaign has acknowledged the existence of efforts “to steal private campaign documents in order to influence an election,” and has blamed Russian hackers for the leak.
Along with sitting government officials including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Claire McCaskill, Cory Booker (misspelled in the email as “Corey” Booker), and Julian Castro—as well as Clinton’s eventual pick, Virginia senator Tim Kaine—the list contained a grouping of names from the business world.
These are the names from that section, listed alphabetically, which is how they appeared in the leaked email. We’ve added the primary professional affiliations of each.
Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors
Michael Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Bloomberg LP, former mayor of New York
Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple
Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Melinda Gates, former Microsoft executive, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola
Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation
Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks