Over the last few days everyone has been talking about President Trump and the actions he has taken in his first few days in office. One positive consequence of Trump’s recent action on refugees and immigrants is that it has inspired an intense discussion about values. I’m sure most of you, like me, have had multiple discussions over the last few days about this among your family, friends, and work colleagues. Regardless of your support or lack of support for Trump’s actions, we all need to revisit our values as Americans and individuals.

As a CEO I do not generally think it’s appropriate for me to take sides in the political process. In this circumstance, however, I feel compelled to comment on Couchbase’s values as it relates to the debate on refugees and immigrants as well as the too often derogatory rhetoric about minorities that has recently become a part of American politics.

I’ve often said that diversity makes Couchbase a much stronger and better place. I believe strongly in the importance of immigration to our country, the high technology industry we work in, and our company.

Couchbase welcomes people from different countries, as well as those with different religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientations, physical abilities and lifestyles. We welcome the diversity and richness this brings to our company and we count on all our employees to make sure everyone feels welcome and respected here. I am deeply committed to these values and will work to make sure we collectively uphold them.

We stand ready to do whatever we can to support our employees and their families.

Author

Posted by Bob Wiederhold

Bob served as President and CEO of Couchbase from 2010 to 2017. Until an acquisition by IBM in 2008, Bob served as chairman, CEO, and president of Transitive Corporation, the worldwide leader in cross-platform virtualization with over 20 million users. Previously, he was president and CEO of Tality Corporation, the worldwide leader in electronic design services, whose revenues and size grew to almost $200 million and had 1,500 worldwide employees. Bob held several executive general management positions at Cadence Design Systems, Inc., an electronic design automation company, which he joined in 1985 as an early stage start-up and helped to grow to more than $1.5 billion during his 13 years at the company. Bob also headed High Level Design Systems, a successful electronic design automation start-up that was acquired by Cadence in 1996.

Leave a reply