Joe Biden’s transition team includes a number of executives from big tech. The move by the Biden camp, reported in Protocol, is an indication of what the President-Elect’s attitude to Silicon Valley might look like. The full list of names that will work (in an unpaid and voluntary capacaity) across a number of different ‘Agency Reviews’ can be found here.
Biden told the New York Times at the start of 2020 that he disagreed with President Obama’s cosy relationship with the tech industry (calling them “creeps” at one point). However, the composition of his agency review teams would suggest that he’s more than happy to offer them the ability to influence government.
Tech execs will be working across all Biden agency reviews
It’s worth noting that those that have been brought into the fold aren’t simply working on issues specifically relating to the technology industry. They have been asked to give guidance on issues as wide-ranging as national security, budget, trade, and small business.
Some of these execs were a part of the Obama administration. Mark Schwartz (of AWS), who will be providing support at the Office of Management and Budget, Arthur Plews (Stripes strategy and operations lead), who will be working within Small Business Administration, and Nicole Isaac – of LinkedIn – who is going to the Treasury Department’s agency review team, were all involved with the Obama White House. These maybe aren’t that surprising, but they underline the close relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington D.C.
However, other appointments are more surprising. For example, Clare Gallagher – Airbnb’s Partnerships and Events Manager – will be working in the National Security Council agency review, while Uber’s Trust and Security Officer Matt Olsen will be in the Intelligence Community agency review. Both of these agency reviews will take in potentially sensitive and geopolitically critical issues around defense.
Other Silicon Valley execs in the Biden transition team include:
- Will Fields of Sidewalk Labs (Alphabet’s ‘smart city’ company) at the Treasury Department
- Amazon’s director of tax planning Tom Sullivan, who will be work inside the agency review team of the Department of State
- Ted Dean of Dropbox (the company’s head of public poilicy) in the U.S. Trade Representative team
- Divya Kumaraiah of Airbnb and Brandon Belford, a Senior Director at Lyft, who will join Mark Schwartz at the Office of Management and Budget
Why are Facebook, Google, Apple, and Twitter not represented?
Business Insider notes that there are no representatives from Facebook, Apple, Google, or Twitter in the list of figures.
Although it’s important to point out that Sidewalk Labs is ‘Google-adjacent’ – in the sense that Sidewalk Labs is part of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) – it’s nevertheless surprising that there is no one else specifically working within Google in any of Biden’s agency review teams.
There’s no clear reason for this; arguably it complicates the argument that Biden is planning on rekindling his relationship with Silicon Valley. To speculate, it could simply signify that these companies simply have fewer concrete links to the Democratic establishment (if this is the case, though, that would be pretty surprising given their size).
However, the real policy implications of a Biden administration for big tech will become apparent later.