Join us for an evening of inspiration as we host Megan Smith, CEO of shift7 and former U.S. Chief Technology Officer.
This event is in-person only.
Join us for an evening of inspiration as we host Megan Smith, CEO of shift7 and former U.S. Chief Technology Officer (2014-2017), in conversation with Mitch Weiss, Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School.
Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. She is the CEO and co-founder of shift7. Before serving as the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, she spent 11 years as vice president at Google, leading new business development.
She’ll share insights from her lifelong journey of innovation and impact. She’ll talk about designing, building, and scaling new technologies and companies; the importance of creating a culture of inclusive innovation; and multi-dimensional entrepreneurship.
This event is open to the entire Harvard community.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Megan Smith is the CEO and co-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.
An award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist, Smith served as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President from 2014 to 2017. Her teams often collaboratively drove broad capacity building by co-creating all-hands-on-deck initiatives, including the public-private program TechHire, the Computer Science for All initiative, and the Image of STEM campaigns.
Smith spent over 11 years as vice president at Google leading new business development where she managed early-stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing across the global engineering and product teams. She also led acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, and Picasa, and later co-created WomenTechmakers and SolveforX. Earlier, Smith served as CEO of PlanetOut, an online LGBTQ community and digital media company in the early days of the internet, and worked on early smartphone technologies at General Magic as well as at Apple Japan.
She is a board member of MIT, Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028, and Think of Us; co-founder of the Malala Fund and United Nations Solutions Summit; an advisor to the Algorithmic Justice League, USC Viterbi, and Silicon Valley Comes to the UK; and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Smith holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT and completed her master’s thesis work at the MIT Media Lab. She was a member of the MIT student team that designed, built, and raced a solar car 2,000 miles across the Australian outback in the first World Solar Challenge. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Engineering.
ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
The Harvard Innovation Labs welcomes attendees of all abilities to our events, both in person and online.
Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.
If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about physical access, please contact i-lab@harvard.edu in advance of the event.
FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS
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