Commonwealth Club to Honor Former U.S. Tech Officer

Despite deep roots in the California tech world and a job she loved in the Bay Area, Megan Smith didn't hesitate to pack her bags for Washington, D.C. when she was offered a job as the government's chief technology officer in September 2014.

"I realized the amazing opportunity" that I was offered and was "honored" to take the job, Smith said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter a couple of weeks after she said goodbye to the Obamas.

In her two and a half years in the nation's capital, Smith, a lesbian, served as an assistant to the president, focusing on technology policy, data, and innovation.

At the time she accepted the job, President Barack Obama said in a statement, "Megan has spent her career leading talented teams and taking cutting-edge technology and innovation initiatives from concept to design to deployment. I am confident that in her new role as America's chief technology officer, she will put her long record of leadership and exceptional skills to work on behalf of the American people."

Now working freelance as a consultant on a number of projects, Smith hasn't made any career decisions, or even decided whether she'll stay on the East Coast or return to California.

"I'm so busy" with projects, she said, "that I haven't really taken the time" to think about all the options.

She frequently visits San Francisco and will be returning next month to accept an award from the Commonwealth Club as one of five people being honored at the organization's 29th annual Distinguished Citizen Gala Friday, March 3 at the Fairmont Hotel.

"Now more than ever, it is important to support the Commonwealth Club," said Gloria C. Duffy, Ph.D., president and CEO. "Every day our thought-provoking, nonpartisan programming serves as a catalyst for the brightest ideas of today. We are thrilled to celebrate these distinguished citizens, each of whom has shaped our future in the Bay Area and beyond.

"Our annual gala is a celebration of these distinguished citizens as well as an opportunity to gather our community and our devoted network of supporters," Duffy added.

In addition to Smith, the Commonwealth Club is also honoring John R. Farmer, Lata Krishnan, Alex Macgillivray, and Bernard J. Tyson.

Asked which aspects of her government job she most enjoyed, Smith didn't hesitate.

"The people, definitely the people," she said. Having teamed with exceptionally accomplished people as she worked her way up the corporate ladder at Apple and Google, Smith said her co-workers in the Obama administration were "some of the brightest, most talented and dedicated people" she'd ever met.

"I'm talking rock star talent," Smith added.

In her role as the CTO of the U.S., Smith led a team that was "embedded" in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, along with the president's science adviser, John Holdren, Ph.D., she said.

The CTO's role was to advise the president and his team about how to harness technology, innovation, and data on behalf of the American people, Smith explained. Early on, the team focused a lot on technology policy and ways to bring technical expertise to people doing policy work. The kinds of topics that Smith worked on included copyright, big data, privacy, patent reform, and open government, she said.

"These are obviously very complex issues," she added.

Smith, 52, a longtime evangelist for diversity in technology, continued her work on giving women and minorities more opportunities and visibility. In computer science, she said, less than 20 percent of the workforce are women, she estimates, in part a result of "unconscious bias."

During her time with the government, Smith said she was working on programs to help raise the visibility of women and minorities working in technology, in terms of making sure they were represented on panels at conferences and informed of opportunities to advance their careers.

Smith pointed to a study that indicated when people are applying for a job, if the job lists 10 characteristics, men will apply if they have at least three of the characteristics, on average, while women would apply if they had at least seven, on average.

"There is a set of people with their hands up and a set of people without their hands up," said Smith. "We must encourage the women to put their hands up."

Prior Tech Work

Before her stint in Washington, Smith was a vice president at Google, first leading new business development, where she managed early stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing across the company's global engineering and product teams. She later served on the leadership team at Google X, where she co-created the company's "SolveForX" innovation community project as well as its "Women Techmakers" tech diversity initiative.

Smith previously served as CEO of the now-defunct PlanetOut, which was a leading LGBT online community in the early days of the web.

She was part of designing early smartphone technologies at General Magic, and worked on multimedia products at Apple Japan.

Smith has served on the boards of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit that works with women leaders in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights. She was also a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and an adviser to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Malala Fund, which she co�founded.

Over the years, Smith has contributed to a wide range of engineering projects, including an award-winning bicycle lock, space station construction program, and solar cook stoves. She holds bachelor's and graduate degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT, where she completed her master's thesis work at the MIT Media Lab.

Smith married Kara Swisher, a San Francisco-based technology journalist and founder of Recode, in 2008 just before the passage of Proposition 8 (the couple also had a ceremony in 1999). They are now separated. The women are raising two sons, ages 14 and 11.

"They moved with me to Washington, D.C. to be part of the adventure," said Smith. "Kara and I get along really, really well."

Tickets to the gala are $500. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://support.commonwealthclub.org/gala-registration