White House Deputy CTO to Leave

The White House's deputy chief technology officer, a former Google veteran, will leave his position Thursday to launch two startups, according to news reports.

Politico reported Wednesday that Andrew McLaughlin, who handled Internet policy issues in the White House, will announce his plans to launch one organization that fosters "low-cost, collaborative tech for state and local governments" and another to support new startups in developing countries.

According to Politico, McLaughlin was Google's head of global public policy and served on Obama's transition team before joining the White House.

In April, he was questioned over the legality of his use of Web-based e-mail to communicate with lobbyists at Google and high-ranking officials. Politico reported that it is unclear who will fill McLaughlin's role.

He is not the first Google official to leave the White House. In July, Katie Jacobs Stanton, a Google veteran who worked on new media strategies for Obama's 2008 campaign and served as White House director of citizen participation before joining the State Department to help the department use social media in international diplomacy and aid, left for Twitter, the Los Angeles Times reported.