3M CEO says Obama is 'Robin Hood-esque'
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3M CEO George Buckley has attacked president Obama as "anti-business" in an interview with the British paper, the Financial Times.
The report was published in today's edition.
Buckley said Obama's instincts are "Robin Hood-esque," and that despite the administration's attempts to strike a more conciliatory tone towards business, Buckley said, "I judge people by their feet, not their mouth."
He added: "Politicians forget that business has choice. We're not indentured servants and we will do business where it's good and friendly. If it's hostile, incrementally, things will slip away. We've got a real choice between manufacturing in Canada and Mexico - which tend to be pro-business - or America."
The 3M CEO also blasted restrictions in US immigration policy, saying the difficulty of obtaining visas for talented people was forcing research and development efforts overseas. "About 68 per cent of our science PhD candidates are from outside the US," he said. "Many want to stay here afterwards but we're not allowed as many visas as we would like."
"We are now exporting science overseas to China, India, Germany, building labs there. There's a good strategic reason for it, but we also have no choice - if we can't get the people here and we're competing with the people there, we have no choice but to do it locally."
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