Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), are the top tech dealmakers
named to the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST.
Before
joining Google, Schmidt served as chief technology officer for Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) and
later as CEO of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL).
Mundie, a 39-year veteran of the computer industry and the co-founder and CEO of Alliant Computer Systems, is responsible for
directing Microsoft's long-term technology strategy, a role filled by co-founder Bill Gates until his retired from day-to-day operations last year.
"This council
represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a
diversity of experience and views,"
said President Obama Monday while speaking at the National Academy of Sciences. "I will charge PCAST with advising me
about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of
scientific innovation."
PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, assistant to the president
for science and technology and director of the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, director of the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the
Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, president and CEO of Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes
of Health and a Nobel laureate. -
Mary Kathleen Flynn
Continue reading below
