Mark R. Warner, U.S. Senator, Commonwealth of Virginia
Interviewer: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

CEO Initiative 2023: Working Across the Aisle

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Little. You CEO S are such a dour. Come on, good morning. That was good. All right, good to see you all. Welcome to the 2023 Fortune Ceo initiative. Honored to have all of you uh with us great group of minds in this room. I can tell, I'm glad you're here. Uh This is year seven of the Fortune Ceo initiative. It was started in the aftermath of our a, a historic Fortune Global forum at the Vatican in 2016 that some of you participated in. And after that, many of you said to us, you want a forum where you can exchange ideas, exchange best practices on how you maximize the positive social impact of your company as well as uh as the financial impact. Uh And I think we've done a lot in the last seven years have made a real difference in the debate. Obviously, the world has changed a lot in that time. Businesses have focused more on uh on social issues. There's been an explosion of commitments around climate. A lot happened in 2020 2021 around dia lot of people in this group, we're going to talk about it later today, have been personally involved in, in, in the training, the need to do a better job training, recreating the escalator of mobility in society. So uh I think a lot of good work has happened in this room and by you all and, and uh and really appreciate it. But of course, as you know, there's also been a backlash against the notion of businesses getting involved in, in uh social issues. And it's interesting this year to be here in Washington to see how that backlash is playing out. And also to have an opportunity to share ideas about what to do about it. How do you, how do you fight back? I think we're at an inflection point so much has happened. I've said this many times before, but I feel like having done this for 40 years, I've never seen a time where you all have so much coming at you. At the same time, we had the pandemic, which obviously had a profound impact on all of your businesses. But on top of that, we have a crazy technology revolution uh going at sort of an ever increasing velocity. We're going to talk about that today. Geopolitical convulsions, we do surveys that all of you participate in that show geopolitics has risen on everybody's consideration list an accelerating energy transition that affects many of you. And, and perhaps most importantly, a fundamental rethinking of what you do of what we do of the purpose of a corporation of how a corporation should, should be organized and how it should think about its goals. And also by the way, a fundamental rethinking of how we work, uh office work, we'll get into that a little bit today. I think all of us are struggling with the right answer to that. So a lot to talk about again, I think it's in it. It's uh by choice that we're here in Washington today. We're rolling into a presidential election. A lot of things are going to come onto the horizon. I have CEO S tell me uh uh almost every day. Please please keep me out of politics, but you can't stay out of politics. Politics is where a lot of these issues get adjudicated. So we're going to be talking about that today. Great lineup of speakers. Um Please remember that the reason we created the CEO initiative was not. So you could sit there and listen to people on stage, but so you could talk to each other. That's really the core of what we do. So we ask you to engage, uh uh please go to the uh breakout groups. That's where the most important conversations uh take place. Uh and ask questions, challenge ideas. You hear from the stage, we want you to be very much involved in the conversation. Um Some important Acknowledgments before we get going. First of all, the CEO initiative, co chairs, some are in the room some are backstage. Uh Fortune editor in chief Alison Chantel Alison. Are you here? I think she's backstage. Uh Fortune executive editor features Matt Heimer Boulevard co-founder and Ceo Rob Blake and uh uh pager duty chairperson and Ceo Jennifer Taha. Round of applause for the coach here. So he spent a lot of time, put a lot of effort into putting this, uh putting this program together. Um I also want to thank our sponsors. We couldn't do it without them. Uh, they include a ARP, uh, a light Bristol Myers Squibb and top applause for the sponsors too. We can't do this without him. A quick reminder about our reporting rules. What's said on stage or what's said in the round table sessions will be on the record. There are reporters here, both our reporters and from outside news organizations and all of that is on the record. What's set in conversations at your table or at the breaks, uh, of course, will not be on the record unless it's agreed to. Um, uh, so let's get started crazy few days in Washington. We certainly didn't know when we picked this state. Uh, uh, what we were getting ourselves into. Uh, we had a backup plan that, uh, the team kept going over about what we would do if the government was shut down. Several of our speakers said they wouldn't be able to make it if the government was shut down. So, it's, it's been a little bit wild. Um uh But I think it also gives us an opportunity to talk about the role of government and so many of the issues that all of you are involved in and care about. So, so for our first speaker, we have somebody who's been right at the center of all that craziness. Uh He is a democrat, but a democrat who understands business has run businesses, uh uh understands technology and looks at the world kind of like all of you do. Let me welcome him to the stage, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Alan thinking back like when you were going through the litany of how you got here, how many of these sessions? I think the first time I came, saw Island was back in 2015 and I had a whole bunch of ideas around future of work and portable benefits. That's right. It happened. We still haven't made much progress on any of those, but you got a little distracted, got a little distracted. Do you have a nice weekend? I had a, let's put it like this. Uh was working late about 10 30 on Saturday night and it was a little weird. I had to go down to Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads the next day and when people were saying, oh, thank you, thank you. Thank you. And I go, we kept the government open for 45 days. Thank you. Ok, so you're you know, you've run businesses, the people in this room run businesses, explain to them why do we have to put up with this crap? I mean, why does this happen? Why do we have to play this same movie over and over and over again? Well, this one was, um, in my time here, uh, unique in that if we look back from a historical basis, the last couple of times there have been shutdowns, there's at least been the premise that there were two operating principles. You know, we had um you know, the battle over Obamacare, we had, I can't even remember why Trump called the shutdown in 18 19, but it kind of broke down one team versus the other. This was not that at all, this was, you know, you had the president, the Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats, the House Democrats and the majority of the House Republicans all saying we don't want to shut it down and the, the kind of extreme crowd, they never could articulate what they wanted. And I have some empathy for the speaker because he kept saying, you know, you want this, you want that and they would never agree. And it ended up being, I mean, there was some crowd of this that just wanted to burn down the house. Um But the thing that was so remarkable to me, if you kind of step back from political scorekeeping, you know, the Democrats got more domestic spending than they expected. They got extraordinarily more uh on the uh disaster aid. The one thing where the pound of flesh was extracted was on aid for Ukraine. And yet if you take the house three days ago, four days ago, this was 330 members of the house voted to keep aid for Ukraine. 75% of the house. So you don't think it means that support for aid to Ukraine. I think it is, I think there is, it is diminishing in the Senate. There were over 80. I'm chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Um There could be nothing more worse timing and more stupid in my view in terms of cutting off aid for Ukraine at this moment in time, we have, you know, Russia has had 50% of its military capacity destroyed without the loss of a single American life or single NATO soldier. We have expanded our alliances in a way that's been unprecedented and yet they'll be questioning if we don't maintain and the absurdity of some of the members who say, well, we don't care about Russia and Ukraine, but I'm scared to death of China and Xi if you don't understand that Putin winning in Ukraine is a green light. She, you flunked Ge but they're, but they're, they're trying to put points on the, on the board, right? Say, oh, you know, uh uh uh if, if the Democrats had not passed mccarthy's plan, they would have said, oh, they want to send all the money to Ukraine but, but 10 days from now, 20 days from now, are we gonna work this out? I think we will. Ok. So there has been a challenge. Yes, there's also been a challenge. You know, there were $113 billion approved for Ukraine 62 in defense. We still have not got how much of that is left. It's somewhere between two and 62 and eight. I think we will get it done. You can't have 75% of both bodies realizing this is the moment for us to step up for democracy and walk away and not do it. So you'll figure out a way to do it. OK. So, but let's go back to the big issue, which is the dysfunction of our political system. I mean, you, you talk about the system being held hostage by a small group of people. There's an obvious answer to that, that I suspect the vast majority of people in this room would happily support. It's kind of how we got out of it, which is a bipartisan solution. Hey, there's sensible people in both parties come together and do what's right for people. That's what Kevin mccarthy did. Now, his party is going to try and kick him out of his job. Should Democrats support speaker mccarthy. I am. That's a yes or no question. You not. My first rodeo either ha to me, the house is a little bit crazy no matter who's in charge. And I can't decide right now whether we are seeing a play out of the Hunger Games or the Battle of The Kens from the Barbie movie. Um But I, yeah, but that is not answering the question. Of course, it's not, but it's not. What should happen is we should have a house that not on a one off basis. And both teams have been guilty of this actually say we're gonna put together majority coalitions that include people from both parties. It has been the informal rule of the house under Dems and Republicans alike. But if you can't win with only your party, you don't pass and you broke that with infrastructure. Well, listen on the Senate and let me just, you know, again, you know, these are, are one thing how center is like, that's the real enemies between the people say that jokingly. But if you, I mean, I know you guys, you know, think, oh gosh, you wanna throw a shoot at the TV. When the news comes on, I get inside the TV, sometimes. But, um, the truth is the last couple of years in the Senate have been the most productive since I've been there and it's all been bipartisan. If you look at infrastructure, if you look at, at the chips bill, if you look at frankly, most of the policies and the, the energy bill, frankly, if you go back to all the COVID stuff. There have been a gang, I joke that I work in the only place in America being a gang member is a good thing, but there's been the same eight or 10 of us that have been driving almost all of these policies. So is there a moment here to begin to create something like that in the house? Let me ask you again. Should the Democrats support Speaker mccarthy? It is all a question of how you would then run the house going forward if this is a one off or if there's going to be actually a circumstance when you've got a four vote margin between the house uh Ds and the House R's that maybe you ought to try to, you know, which one of the reasons I think keeping the 60 vote marks on things and some things in the Senate makes sense. You got to force that collaboration. Anything that can systemically move towards more. Count me in one of the reasons why I argue for, for you guys out here. I mean, I have a, I'm in the smallest minority in the Senate. I can actually read a balance sheet. Um But there are a group of us that are trying in minority in your party, but it's also on the Republican side as well. I'm not sure many can read a balance sheet these days, but there is a moment uh that many of you would probably disagree with. I think after the chips bill, the uh infrastructure bill and even some of the, you know, the energy junk um democrats realize you got to build stuff and that means you get regulatory reform. I think there was a new opening on the democratic side for engagement with the business community because let's face it. There was a crowd on the Republican side that is probably more, I gotta tell you it's a big business than then. We, we, we got a lot to talk about very little time and, but we could go down the road. We have to do this. 5 26. You think I can ignore the people backstage are, are, are tough on this. I don't have the privileges of Filibuster. Um uh Look, uh uh uh let's, let's talk about technology because that's something you're deeply involved in, deeply interested in. Uh There is a feeling among many people in the business community that we do need some kind of sensible regulation. But there's also a feeling that given what we just talked about sensible regulation is not something we're likely to get out of Washington. So how do you, how do you, how do you solve that puzzle? Let me give you the one minute perfect speed answer one is we have been Congress has been pathetic for almost a decade on putting any guard rails on social media. I think we all know that was a mistake. Looking back, number one, number two, as recently as six months ago, we put a broad bipartisan, half D's half R's idea about a framework on how you deal with technology from adversarial nations, China Russia at all called the um you know, frankly got blown out of the water when $100 million of tiktok bite dance financing took place. So I'm somewhat, you know, concerned are we going to get, get there on A I very briefly, I spent as much time I think as any member of Congress on this, I have a little bit of a technology background. I've never spent time on a subject where the more time spent doesn't translate into a better knowledge set or more assurance of, of where we are head. Um And I, I've never seen anything two points. I'm, I'm watching your clock. One is, I've never seen anything where the basic economics have so fundamentally changed. If we go way back in time to last November, it was gonna be scale, was gonna win. Who had the most data, the most, the most test that all changed when meta released Llama and countries like UAE could do this pennies on the dollar or you gonna attach your individual app to a large language model. I don't know, I don't think we will do holistic um A I regulation short term. I would argue there are two domains where the two domains that where A I could be the most disruptive tomorrow to any of your businesses and to society that could be disruption and losing faith in public elections and candidly losing faith in public markets. And if we can't find a way to put the capitalists together with the small d democrats to at least put guardrails around faith in our public elections and faith in our public markets. We're gonna, the modest radio that would at least put the guard rails in as the rest of the world races forward, maybe over the top. Ok, China in one in one minute, China in one minute. Uh uh look, we're, we're, we are engaging in industrial policy in a way that we haven't in my lifetime. Uh And there would have never been another chip facility built in America if we had not. So we had to do it. Where is will it work? Can it work? Well, the play out on how, whether it's, it's spent out correctly? Rubber hits the road. Um I spent a longer in technology than I have in politics. Uh Russia was a military and ideological threat. China is the kind of challenge we've never faced before. No nation state America has ever faced has been as investing as deeply in technology domains. My background is wireless, both wall running the table in five G and setting the standards was like a holy heck wake up call for me. Um National security in 2023 is not simply tanks and guns. It is technology domain dominance and China is a great nation and my beef is with the Communist Party and Xi Jinping and it is not with the Chinese people any time a policy maker or business leader doesn't make that clear. We make a mistake. There is a huge opportunity in the rest of the world right now where there's a lot of dissatisfied customers from Belt and Road for America and American business to engage in those nation states. I think we need the same kind of quasi industrial policy that we've done with chips, you know, synthetic biology and advanced energy smo in, in, in quantum computing, you go down domains, maybe not at the same dollar amount but not realizing that uh what China is doing in each of these domains and they are not playing for second place. And I can tell you uh from the, the intelligence standpoint, I'm chairman of the intelligence committee. Um even with and, and obviously, it's not a good sign when a co a country stops reporting data like they did on youth unemployment, but they are not stopping the $600 billion a year of intellectual property theft plus the level of domain investment. All right. Last question. Uh this, you're, this is a group of problem solvers. These are people who run businesses, they want to see things fixed. What can they do to help fix your problem here in Washington? They can hire people that know how to get to. Yes. Skip which party. I mean, there's a whole bunch of folks, guys and gals I work with that. They can tell you what they've been against. Um, but they can't tell you what they got done if all I did was run down my competition and never put out a good product. I wouldn't be in business very long and also don't come in with a fixed set that I'm simply one team or the other. Uh Yeah. Well, and there are a lot of this, I mean, the fact that now the challenge has been when we lose the Rob Portman and Mitt Romneys and Roy Blunt and Richard Burr, that makes it harder but reinforce those of us who can come to us and actually can't understand that this is, you know, technology is not gonna slow down. The rule is not gonna slow down. You're not gonna get rid of us. We're gonna be part of how you run your businesses. So let's make the best collaboration possible. Great advice, Senator Warner. Thank you so much. Next time, portable benefits, we'll, we'll do, we will do portable benefits. Thank you.