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Google's Megan Smith Would Be First US CTO Worthy of the Title

Posted by Soulskill on from the knows-how-to-program-her-VCR dept.

theodp writes: Bloomberg is reporting that Google X's Megan Smith is the top candidate for U.S. Chief Technology Officer. With a BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and experience ranging from General Magic to Google, Smith would arguably be the first U.S. CTO worthy of the title (the outgoing U.S. CTO has a bachelor's in Econ; his predecessor has a master's in Public Policy). "Smith joined Google in 2003. As vice president of business development, she oversaw many of its most important acquisitions, like Keyhole, the service that underlies Google Earth. She has led the company’s philanthropic division, Google.org, and served as a co-host for Google’s Solve for X forum, where distinguished thinkers and scientists brainstorm radical technology ideas with Google executives."

4 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Revolving door by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Her coming from Google matters more than her degree. Revolving door politics is bad news for the consumer and for smaller businesses.

  2. As a girl working in tech... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I hate to see things like this happen. Appointing her just because she is female cheapens what I've done. Just as the joke of a new CEO of Microsoft who was picked for his race pisses off my Indian friends, this is the same deal.

  3. What about the other applicants? by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Are the other applicants less qualified? Do any of them have degrees in mechanical engineering? We don't know, because the only person mentioned is Megan Smith. We can't fairly judge whether or not she'd be a good fit because we have no idea what the alternatives are.

    --
    -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
  4. Re:Does this office need Congressional approval? by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because while she is quite qualified for the position I can bet that some in Congress will not only have an issue with her gender but also her sexual orientation.

    Note that I do not believe this should be an issue at all, but reality is often different from what we would hope.

    Trust me, congress doesn't give a crap about who or what she is. What they care about is if they can use her to hurt their political opponents.