In 2018, Greg Abbott flew to Wipro’s headquarters in India and celebrated its Texas expansion.
Wipro promised “hiring locally.”
Abbott then appointed Wipro’s CEO to the Texas Economic Development Corporation board.
Months later, Abbott’s longtime senior adviser David Whitley left the Governor’s Office - where Abbott says he helped oversee Economic Development & Tourism and the Texas Enterprise Fund.
Four months later, Whitley registered to lobby for Wipro.
He represented Wipro again in 2021.
That same year, Wipro’s former CEO appeared as a keynote speaker at ITServe Alliance’s national conference.
In 2024, Abbott went back to India with TxEDC Vice Chair Arun Agarwal and met Wipro executives again to discuss expanding the relationship.
The revolving door isn’t theoretical. It’s in the Texas Ethics Commission records.
Abbott recruited Wipro.
He appointed its CEO.
His longtime adviser left government and became its lobbyist.
And Abbott kept courting the company.
Now look at the job ad below.
After years of building these relationships, Abbott suddenly discovered an H-1B problem and started promising “Texans First.”
Fine.
@GregAbbott_TX, you spent years recruiting the companies. When did you start asking whether they were recruiting Texans?