Trump Consults Verizon CEO, Others on Restarting US Economy After COVID-19

Verizon's Hans Vestberg said he was among CEOs and other executives who spoke with President Donald Trump Wednesday about how to restart the U.S. economy once the widespread shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic ends. Vestberg is among six executives Trump named to a telecom-specific industry group advising the White House on reopening the U.S. economy (see personals section, this issue). The others are Liberty Media’s John Malone, Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Charter’s Thomas Rutledge, T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert and Altec’s Lee Styslinger. A separate tech sector group of 15 executives includes Apple’s Tim Cook, Qualcomm’s Steven Mollenkopf, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google parent Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Broadcom’s Hock Tan and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. The call with Trump “was very useful,” Vestberg said in a statement. “Verizon and many other companies across the country are committed to finding ways of effectively doing business in the ‘new normal,’ and we're equally looking forward to doing our part to help bring back a strong and vibrant U.S. economy.”