The President Of Mark Zuckerberg’s Immigration Reform Group Has Resigned
FWD.us
Joe Green, the president of the tech-backed immigration reform group founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has resigned from his post at FWD.us, according to a company blog post.
We saw this post on Politico, though Re/code’s Kara Swisher was first to reveal Green’s departure. According to a confidential email sent to Swisher, Green was likely “pushed” from his top spot.
Todd Schulte, executive director of FWD.us and former chief of staff at super PAC Priorities USA, will serve as acting president.
Green served as president of FWD.us since it was founded in 2013, but efforts to reform the laws surrounding immigration have since come to a grinding halt, as a result of congressional gridlock. President Barack Obama has said he will consider executive action on immigration after November’s midterm elections.
“While FWD.us has achieved important milestones in the fight to reform immigration laws, Joe and the Board agreed a change in leadership was necessary,” the company wrote in the blog post.
Tech companies have long advocated for improved immigration laws so they could obtain visas to hire more high-skilled workers from the global community. Some of the tech leaders involved in FWD.us include VCs John Doerr and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman; Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston; and Microsoft cofounder and chairman Bill Gates. You can see all the major contributors to FWD.us here.
We’ve reached out to FWD.us about the move, and we’ll update the story as soon as we learn more.
Zuckerberg wrote a letter to major contributors of FWD.us, which follows below (courtesy of Kara Swisher):
I’m writing to let you know that Joe Green has resigned as President of FWD.us, effective immediately, and that Executive Director Todd Schulte will become acting President. While FWD.us has achieved important milestones in the fight to reform immigration laws, Joe and I agreed a change in leadership was necessary.
I’m confident that Todd will continue to lead FWD.us’ work. He played a big role in FWD.us’ efforts to support the Senate’s successful passage of a bill in 2013 and the progress we’ve made over the past year. He has been with FWD.us since June 2013 and has been instrumental in building the case for immigration reform in DC. His prior experience as Chief-of-Staff at Priorities USA, the Super PAC supporting President Obama’s re-election, will ensure FWD.us continues its momentum for reform. Todd will continue to work closely with Rob Jesmer, FWD.us’ Campaign Manager, and the rest of the senior staff and team.
I’ve scheduled a call today at noon PT to discuss this change and for Todd to lay out his plans for the future, including a discussion of FWD.us’ work with the Administration on the possibility of some immigration reform via Executive Action. Please call XXX for details at XXX if you are interested in joining the call.
Please keep this information confidential until after 12:30pm PT today.
Mark
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