Beth Simone Noveck
Founder and director of The Governance Lab
Beth is founder and director of The Governance Lab, which aims to improve people’s lives by changing how we govern using advances in technology and science. The GovLab designs and tests technology, policy and strategies for fostering more open and collaborative approaches to strengthen the ability of people and institutions to work together to solve problems, make decisions, resolve conflict and govern themselves more effectively and legitimately.
The Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professor at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab, Beth is a professor of law at New York Law School. Named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 1000 in 2014 and 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010, she spearheaded President Obama's open government effort, leading a “do tank, not a think tank” that fostered the executive branch's internal innovation and public outreach. She served as the first US Deputy Chief Technology Officer from 2009 to 2011, with innovative accomplishments include launching a Veterans Administration contest and creating apps.gov, a site that streamlines tech-tool procurement and publicises public-sector demand for developers' expertise.
Beth served on the Obama-Biden Transition Team and was a volunteer advisor to the Obama for America campaign on issues concerning technology, innovation and government reform. Due to her successes with President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her Senior Advisor for Open Government.
Her scholarship, activism, and teaching focus on accelerating and assessing progress toward smarter, more collaborative, and decentralised governance. Among the projects she has designed or collaborated on, the most prominent include: Peer To Patent, the US government’s first expert network; OrgPedia, the Wikipedia of firms; Data.gov; and Challenge.gov.
A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she has been named one of the “Top Women in Technology” by the Huffington Post. She is the author of Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds. As one of Politico’s Top 25 Game Changers, Beth Simone Noveck shares her insights on using technology to safeguard democracy with audiences around the world.