Megan Smith, most recently vice president of the Google X research arm, has been appointed to succeed Todd Park as federal chief technology officer and assistant to President Barack Obama.
Alexander Macgillivray, former general counsel and public policy head at Twitter, will hold the position of deputy CTO, according to a Thursday blog post by Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren.
Smith will be responsible for setting information technology policies and strategies intended to accelerate the development of data and communication technologies in her new position.
She served as business development VP at Google for nine years and oversaw the search engine firm’s acquisition deals related to digital platforms Google Earth, Picasa and Google Maps.
She is also former CEO of PlanetOut and has worked on key technology projects at General Magic and Apple Japan.
Macgillivray will succeed Nicole Wong and be responsible for overseeing Internet, intellectual property, privacy and big data initiatives as the country’s deputy CTO.
He is a practicing coder and developer and oversaw Twitter’s legal functions between 2009 and 2013.
