Good morning! Accenture gets hit by DOGE, AI regulation should factor in risks we don’t know yet, and Trump’s education secretary is tasked with making herself obsolete.
– On the job market. When President Donald Trump sat down yesterday to sign an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education, he acknowledged the member of his cabinet who will be tasked with putting herself out of a job.
“Hopefully you won’t be there too long,” he said to his new Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, the New York Times reports. “We’re going to find something else for you, Linda.”
McMahon knew what she was getting into when she took the job. (The same can’t be said for the 2,000 federal workers who have already lost their jobs at the agency.) During her confirmation hearing last month, she told senators that the Department of Education’s “mission and authority were a special focus on [Trump’s] campaign.” “He pledged to make American education the best in the world, return education to the states where it belongs, and free American students from the education bureaucracy through school choice,” she said. McMahon, the former WWE CEO, has been a steadfast Trump supporter and donor.
Republicans’ opposition to the education department predates Trump. It was authorized under President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and Republicans opposed it from the start, the NYT reports. President Ronald Reagan called the education department a form of “nonessential government spending.” Now issues ranging from book bans to trans children participating in girls’ sports to COVID-era school policies to anti-Israel protests on college campuses have culminated in bringing that goal back to the mainstream of the Republican Party.
Trump says the federal government will still provide funding for special education, Pell grants for low-income students, and high-poverty schools. And yet McMahon is still directed to work to eliminate the agency—and to still comply with federal law. Specifically, the order reads: “The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
It’s certainly a higher-profile job than the one McMahon held in the first Trump administration as head of the Small Business Administration. And it may be an impossible one.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Consulting casualty. Accenture shares fell 7.3% yesterday after CEO Julie Sweet said on an earnings call that the consulting firm was being hit by reduced federal spending and the Department of Governmental Efficiency. Sixteen percent of Accenture’s Americas’ revenue and 8% of global revenue came from U.S. federal contracts. CNBC
- Where are the women? Women are losing out on senior roles at HSBC as the bank restructures. Only two women were chosen for new Asia-Pacific banking head roles, out of at least 15 positions total. Plus, all of the senior banking positions were filled by men in HSBC’s priority markets: Singapore, China, and India. An HSBC spokesperson asked for comment referenced the firm’s past commitments to inclusion. Bloomberg
- AI anticipation. “Godmother of AI” Fei-Fei Li, as part of an AI-focused policy group, argued that legislators regulating AI should factor in risks that “have not yet been observed in the world.” The group’s report also pushes for more transparency from AI developers on safety tests and security practices. TechCrunch
- Cover girl. Vivian Wilson, the 20-year-old daughter of Elon Musk who has been estranged from her father since she came out as trans in 2020, gave one of her first interviews to Teen Vogue in a new cover story. She says that growing up around extravagant wealth while seeing homelessness in L.A. informed her leftist politics and that she’s not scared of Musk, who she hasn’t spoken to in more than four years. Teen Vogue
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee. She will be the first woman and first African to hold the position.
Microsoft (No. 13 on the Fortune 500) appointed Amy Coleman to chief people officer, effective immediately, replacing Kathleen Hogan. Coleman previously served as the company’s corporate vice president for human resources and corporate functions. Hogan will continue to serve as an EVP at Microsoft and will join the new Office of Strategy and Transformation.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
Affinity, which provides dealmakers with relationship intelligence services, named Rebecca Campbell CTO. Campbell most recently served as SVP of engineering at Mural.
First Responders Children’s Foundation named Theresa Tobin chief national public safety liaison. She was chief of interagency operations for the New York Police Department.
Standard Lithium appointed Karen G. Narwold to its board of directors. Most recently, she was chief administrative officer, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Albemarle Corporation.
ON MY RADAR
Why we’re missing the girlboss after burning her at the stake The Daily Beast
Who needs intimacy coordinators? Vulture
What impossibly wealthy women do for love and fulfillment The Atlantic
PARTING WORDS
“I’ve always wanted another opportunity. I finally have it. Yes, it’s scary. It might be the craziest, dumbest thing. But I’m going to trust in the universe.”
— Ellen Pompeo on taking her first major role besides Grey’s Anatomy in almost 20 years with Good American Family