Google Executive Megan Smith Named Country’s Next Chief Tech Officer

President Barack Obama has named top Google executive Megan Smith as the country’s next chief technology officer, to replace Todd Park, who relinquished the CTO role last month to take on a new role as the government’s leading emissary in Silicon Valley. Smith will lead a team that’s also gaining a new deputy — Alex Macgillivray, formerly the top lawyer at Twitter. “As U.S. CTO, Smith will guide the Administration’s information-technology policy and initiatives, continuing the work of her predecessors to accelerate attainment of the benefits of advanced information and communications technologies across every sector of the economy and aspect of human well-being,” John Holdren, the director of the administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a blog post Thursday.