Media Query Source: Part 50 - The Street (US financial news website); Context on Elon Musk replacing top tech officials at government agencies

• The Street (US financial news website)
• Context on Elon Musk replacing top tech officials at government agencies
• Corporate interests can be separated from customer needs
• However, work that reflects this philosophy should not be assumed

The query responses I provided to The Street on February 14, 2025:

The Street: Do you believe that individuals with ties to large tech companies can separate their corporate interests from the needs of national security and public service?

Gfesser: Absolutely. Most of my career has been spent as a consultant performing work for a variety of customers (including governments), and as someone known as a thought leader who emphasizes transparency, knowledge sharing and integrity, I can tell you with certainty that separating company interests from customer interests is not only possible, but part of the responsibilities of a consultant.

While everyone has bias, including me, my goal has always been to act in the best interests of my customers in mind - not to act in the best interests of my company's associations (tech vendors etc) in mind. As such, I have always operated in a tech agnostic manner during pre-sales efforts that preceded some of my customer engagements. In other words, I didn't steer customers in a direction that wasn't right for them with respect to solutions or the tech used to build these.

Now, when it has been determined that a given customer is in need of a lot of work, it's important to understand that priorities need to be set. All else being equal, it might make sense for a vendor such a as a tech company to execute the more costly solutions first, but only because this makes sense for planning due to downstream dependencies etc.

All of this said, while companies are technically able to separate their interests from the needs of national security and public service, it shouldn't be assumed that their work will reflect this philosophy unless they explicitly communicate that this is the case, and there is some degree of reasonable auditing the auditors so-to-speak that will be incorporated into the process.