Obama appointing Twitter CEO to advisory group
Twitter chief Dick Costolo will join the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Microsoft's Scott Charney and McAfee's David DeWalt will be appointed too.
Just months after becoming Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo will also be joining a presidential advisory committee.
Last night, President Obama announced his intent to appoint Costolo to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). Costolo became the CEO of Twitter in October, taking over from site co-founder Evan Williams. Prior to becoming CEO, Costolo served as Twitter's chief operating officer.
The president also announced plans to appoint to the committee Scott Charney, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, and David DeWalt, McAfee president.
"I am proud to appoint such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this Administration," President Obama said in a statement accompanying his plans for appointments. "I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."
The NSTAC has been in place for more than 25 years. Its main charge is to provide the U.S. government with important advice on the "availability and reliability of telecommunication services." The committee is made up of several high-powered executives, including John Stankey, CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel, and Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon.
The addition of Twitter's CEO to the telecommunications committee speaks to how important the service has become to global communications. Not only is the site useful for communication between average people, but when news breaks, Twitter has become the first place to find information. In fact, news of the killing of Osama bin Laden was revealed on Twitter before any major news outlet published a story. The raid was even unwittingly live-tweeted by a Pakistani man close to Bin Laden's compound.
Obama's newest appointments comes just a few months after he held a dinner with 12 of the country's top tech executives, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Acknowledging the importance of social networks today, attendees also included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Costolo.