Former Chief Technology Officer of the United States Megan Smith joins Discovery 2018

TORONTO: Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) is pleased to announce that Megan Smith, former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the United States under President Barack Obama, will be a keynote speaker on day two of this year's Discovery conference.

Megan Smith is an award-winning tech entrepreneur who served as the third U.S. CTO, helping the President harness the power of technology, data, and innovation. Prior to this role, Smith was vice president at Google, leading new business development by managing partnerships across the company's engineering and product teams.

While at Google, Smith led acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, and Picasa, steered the shift of Google.org to include more direct engineering impact, such as Google Crisis Response, and later served on the leadership team of GoogleX. Through her career, she has founded and co-created a wide range of social programs and initiatives focused on technology, including the public-private program TechHire, the Computer Science for All initiative, Solve for X, and Women Techmakers. Smith is currently CEO of shift7, a social tech company that focuses on using innovation and inclusion to collaborate and solve local, national, and global challenges.

Smith is a proponent of STEM education, innovation, and inclusivity, serving on the board of MIT and the advisory boards for the MIT Media Lab, MIT Technology Review, Vital Voices, and the Malala Fund, which she co-founded.

It is our honour to have such a dynamic and influential keynote guest speaker at this year's Discovery conference, says Dr. Tom Corr, President and CEO, OCE. Megan Smith's work and impact in the tech industry is vast and far-reaching, and OCE looks forward to bringing her experiences and perspective of the innovation ecosystem to the Discovery audience.

Discovery will be held on April 30 and May 1 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Named Canada's Best Trade Show in 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2017 and celebrating 13 years of bold, new ideas, OCE's Discovery is Canada's premier innovation showcase. It brings together the best and brightest minds in industry, academia, investment and government to showcase leading-edge technologies, best practices and research through transformative technology initiatives such as 5G, next generation networks, connected and autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence, and in the areas of energy, fintech, cleantech, edtech, the environment, advanced health, digital media, information and communication technologies, and advanced manufacturing. The annual conference and showcase attracts more than 3,500 attendees and 500 exhibitors.