Tech leaders recruited for modernization initiative

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, were among those attending an afternoon of working groups on issues like technology infrastructure, cybersecurity and visas for foreign workers.

Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law to Trump, welcomed the technology executives, calling them “a very impressive group of leaders from the private sector” being put to work “on some of the country’s biggest challenges that will make a very meaningful difference to a lot of its citizens.”

Nearly 100 major technology companies —including Facebook, LinkedIn and Intel — also opposed in February the administration’s executive order banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.

Venture capitalist John Doerr, a partner at Menlo Park’s Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, viewed the Monday gathering as part of a broader history of bipartisan efforts to use technology to modernize government and “improve the lives of all Americans,” a company spokeswoman said.