State Department's innovation advisor leaves agency

Alec Ross, senior advisor for innovation to the Secretary of State, officially vacated his post March 12, according to an announcement on his Facebook page.

Ross will be go back to work in the private sector as an "advisor to investors, corporations, institutions and government leaders," according to his letter of resignation, which he posted on Facebook.

"I also plan to dig deep in areas of emerging opportunity in the innovation space," Ross said in the letter. "There are products that only live today in peoples’ imaginations that will help us live happier, healthier, more productive lives while unleashing the next stage of value creation and economic growth. I will be spending a lot of time engaged with the thinkers and entrepreneurs imagining and inventing the future."

Ross joined the State Department in 2009 after serving a key role in President Barack Obama’s campaign, spearheading the agency’s "21st Century Statecraft" initiative and leading Civil Society 2.0,a grass-roots program that helps organizations all over the world harness the Internet to promote good government.

Ross, who began his career educating low-income students for Teach for America, helped foster a culture of eDiplomacy at the State Department, where every embassy now has a social media account and dignitaries reach out to the masses via tweets.

Read our earlier coverage of his plan to step down.