On Friday, Jan. 27, a nation of immigrants began closing its doors. Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the entry of people from seven Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The tech world, including giant companies Google, Uber and Amazon, were quick to respond, mostly with varying degrees of condemnation. You can get a rundown here in a story on The Verge.
Responses included Google’s $2 million “crisis fund” with up to $4 million that could be matched by its employees. Google cofounder Sergey Brin aligns himself with refugees, as his family left Russia in 1979 feeling persecuted for being Jewish. Airbnb’s Brian Chesky offered free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed into the United States.
The world of technology and Silicon Valley is famous for its successful immigrants and their children. Soon after President Trump’s executive order, Twitter lit up with reminders that the late great Steve Jobs’ father was a Syrian immigrant.
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Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)
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The most strongly worded response was the lone response from the CAD/CAE community. Autodesk’s Carl Bass issued a statement entitled “Standing With Our Employees, and Immigrants Everywhere,” in which Bass, himself a grandson of immigrants, concluded with this: “… we do not support President Trump’s stance on immigration.” |
We reached out to several CAD/CAE companies to see if their leaders had expressed an opinion publicly to their employees or would like to make a statement. The ones that responded are listed below.
Peter Schroer, CEO of Aras. (Image courtesy of Aras.)
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“We are an international company, with employees and customers around the globe,” said Peter Schroer, founder and CEO of Aras. “We take pride in our diversity and derive great strength from the contributions of all members of our community. We believe President Trump’s position on immigration to be mean spirited and short sighted. This approach does not ‘Make America Great Again.’” | |
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Biplab Sarkar, CEO of Vectorworks. (Image courtesy of Vectorworks.)
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“We have a very diverse group of employees at Vectorworks,” added Vectorworks CEO Biplab Sarkar, “and we are very concerned about the impact of this executive order on our employees and their families.” |
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Dominic Gallello, CEO of MSC Software. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)
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“We are supporting our employees who may be affected as appropriate under the circumstances,” offered Dominic Gallello, CEO of MSC Software. | |
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Alain de Rouvray, CEO of ESI Group. (Image courtesy of ESI Group.)
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"We are deeply concerned with the recent ban on nationals from a number of nations to enter the United States, while we understand the legitimate need for protecting our own nation's population," says Dr. Alain de Rouvray, CEO of ESI Group. "ESI has always prided itself in being a truly global and fair organization, greeting talented employees from all social backgrounds, religions, skin color, and gender. We intend to continue on this track in support of our bona fide employees and customers around the world, emphasizing work ethics and social responsibility." | |
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John Hayes, CEO of ENGINEERING.com
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“Very few of us in the technology world can trace our ancestry in America back more than a few generations," adds John Hayes, CEO of ENGINEERING.com."That means that even if we are not immigrants ourselves, it’s likely that our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were. America was founded on grand commitments including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. We must stand up to ensure that these freedoms endure, as they are fundamental to what truly makes America great.” | |
Many CAD/CAE companies we contacted officially declined to comment or failed to reply in time for this story.
If you lead a CAD or CAE company and would like to list your statement here, please let us know.