Megan Smith

Award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. CEO and founder 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.  Smith served as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President from 2014-2017 under President Obama — 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.

Prior, Smith spent over eleven years as vice president at Google leading new business development including acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, Picasa, she led Google.org, and later co-created WomenTechmakers, and SolveforX. Earlier, she was PlanetOut CEO, an LGBTQ digital media and community company, at General Magic where she worked on early smart phones, and Apple Japan. Bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT, master’s thesis at MIT Media Lab. Board member of MIT, Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028, Think of Us; co-founder of the Malala Fund and UN Solutions Summit; advisor to the Algorithmic Justice League, USC Viterbi and Silicon Valley Comes to the UK; selected as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer; Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, European Union Global Tech Panel and the National Academy of Engineering.