15 Facts About Megan Smith

Megan J Smith was born on October 21,1964 and is an American engineer and technologist.

Megan Smith was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama.

Megan Smith was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.

Megan Smith serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund.

Megan Smith 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.

Megan Smith joined formally in 1996 as COO and from 1998 she was Planet Out's Chief Executive Officer, where she expanded partnerships, built new business models, grew revenue and global users, raised venture funding, and later presided over that company's merger with Gay.

Megan Smith led many early acquisitions, including Keyhole, Where2Tech, and Picasa, and later took over as general manager of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.

Megan Smith's teams focused on broad capacity building by co-creating all-hands-on-deck initiatives, including the public-private program TechHire, the Computer Science for All initiative, and the Image of STEM campaigns.

At shift7, the team continued co-creating the United Nations Solutions Summit and other programs; in 2017 Megan Smith helped launch Tech Jobs Tour, aimed at promoting diversity in the technological sector, traveling to over 20 US cities to help empower and connect local talent to their nascent tech sectors.

Megan Smith serves on the board of MIT, Vital Voices, LA2028, Think of Us as well as on the advisory boards for the MIT Media Lab and the Algorithmic Justice League.

Megan Smith is a member of the Award Selection Committee for the distinguished Carroll L Wilson Award at MIT.

Megan Smith has contributed to a broad range of engineering projects, including a bicycle lock, space station construction program, and solar cookstoves.

Megan Smith is an active proponent of STEM education and innovation.

Megan Smith was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 for leading technological innovation teams and efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM industries both nationally and globally, and elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

Megan Smith married technology columnist Kara Swisher in Marin County in 1999.