Megan Smith

This article is about the technology executive. For the actress, see Meagan Smith.

Megan Smith
Chief Technology Officer of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office September 4, 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Todd Park
Personal details
Born	October 1964 (age 59)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Kara Swisher (Separated)
Children	2
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Megan J. Smith (born October 1964) is the Chief Technology Officer of the United States. She was previously a vice president of Google[x] at Google, was vice president of business development at Google for nine years, and was general manager of Google.org and the former CEO of Planet Out. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, is a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third (and first female) Chief Technology Officer of the United States, succeeding Todd Park.

Early life and education

Smith grew up in Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario, and spent many summers at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, where her mother, Joan Aspell Smith, was director of the Chautauqua Children's School. Smith graduated from City Honors School in 1982. She went on to receive her S.B. in 1986 and an S.M. in 1988, both in mechanical engineering, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and completed her Master's thesis work at the MIT Media Lab. She was a member of the MIT student team that designed, built and raced a solar car 2000 miles across the Australian outback in the first cross-continental solar car race.

Career

Following MIT, Smith worked at a variety of start-ups, including Apple in Tokyo and General Magic located in Mountain View, California, as product design lead on nascent smartphone technologies before she got involved with the launch of Planet Out in 1995. She joined formally in 1996 as COO and from 1998 she was Planet Out's Chief Executive Officer, where she presided over that company's merger with Gay.com.

In 2003, she joined Google, where she rose to the vice president of business development, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams. She led many early acquisitions, including Keyhole (Google Earth), Where2Tech (Google Maps), and Picasa, and later also took over as general manager of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org. Smith co-hosts Google's Solve for X think tank. In 2012, she started Google's "Women Techmakers" diversity initiative.

Smith serves on the board of MIT, as well as on the advisory boards for the MIT Media Lab, DRAPER, and Technology Review and serves on the board of Vital Voices. She is also a member of the Award Selection Committee for the distinguished Carroll L. Wilson Award at MIT. Smith has contributed to a broad range of engineering projects, including a bicycle lock, space station construction program, and solar cookstoves.

She is an active proponent of STEM education and innovation.

Recognition

• World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2001, 2002
• In 2012 and 2013, Smith was listed by Out magazine as one of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the United States
• Reuters Digital Vision Program Fellow at Stanford, 2003-2004
• Top 25 Women on the Web, 2000
• Upside Magazine 100 Digital Elite, 1999 and 2000
• Advertising Age i.20, 1999
• GLAAD Interactive Media Award for Internet Leadership, 1999
• Charging Buffalo Award, 2015

Personal life

Smith married re/code technology columnist Kara Swisher in 1999. They have two children and are separated.

External links

• Official biography at Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Profile of Megan Smith, U.S. Chief Technology Officer - Makers: Women Who Make America