NEW INTERVIEW: Megan Smith, Founder of Shift7, US CTO Under President Obama
Megan Smith on her career at General Magic, Google and US CTO to Shift7 and how we can make tech more equitable - Listen here
Today’s guest is the incredible Megan Smith - award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist - listen here. It would take me an hour to talk through Megan’s illustrious career but some of what we discuss in this episode includes her work on multimedia products at Apple Japan, working on early smartphones at General Magic, eleven years at Google where she held a VP position, leading new business development including acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, Picasa, she led Google.org, and later co-created Women Techmakers, and Solve for X. This was all before serving as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to President Obama from 2014-2017, working on issues from AI, data science and open source, to inclusive economic growth, entrepreneurship, structural inequalities, government tech innovation capacity, STEM/STEAM engagement, workforce development, and criminal justice reform.
Megan is currently founder and CEO of Shift7, a company working collaboratively on systemic social, environmental and economic problems -- finding opportunities to scout and scale promising solutions and solution makers and engage proven tech-forward, open, shareable practices to drive direct impact, together.
Finally, Megan holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where she is now a board member and Megan is also co-founder of the Malala Fund and UN Solutions Summit. She is also a board member of Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028 and Think of Us, and is Algorithmic Justice League advisor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Engineering.
This is a great episode - listen here - with one of my favourite, and the most accomplished women in tech so it felt right to share ahead of International Women in Engineering Day next week (if you like it, please do feel free to share this episode on Twitter using #inwed21).
You can find the episode wherever you listen to your podcasts:
Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
Until next time.
Danielle
