And the revolving door between Google and the White House continues.
The New York Times is reporting that the technology company has hired President Obama's former adviser, Caroline Atkinson, to lead its global public policy team.
With the hire, Atkinson becomes the latest player in the continuing revolving door between Google and the White House, considering Megan Smith left the company in 2014 to become Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Andrew McLaughlin, Google's former head of global public policy, left the company to take over the White House's deputy chief technology gig before that in 2009.
Also with the hire, Atkinson becomes the latest member from President Obama's administration to leave the Commander-in-Chief's side to enter Silicon Valley, with fellow former presidential adviser David Plouffe joining Uber in August 2014 and ex-press secretary Jay Carney joining Amazon in early 2015.
Under her new role with Google, beginning in March, Atkinson takes over Google's lead of its global policy unit, assuming the helm from Rachel Whetstone, who left the company for Uber last May.
Atkinson will be counted on to handle the European Union as far as dealing with antitrust officials.
"Caroline's an internationally respected diplomat and adviser, and we're delighted to have such a thoughtful leader heading our global public policy team," Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, said in a statement to the Times.
Probably won't be the last time that the White House, Google and other Silicon Valley companies swap employees.
Hey, great minds think alike, right?
