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Facebook sent their COO. Twitter sent their CEO. Kent Walker[0] is Google's CLO (legal officer) and SVP of Global Affairs. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

by kyrra 8y ago

Facebook sent their COO. Twitter sent their CEO. Kent Walker[0] is Google's CLO (legal officer) and SVP of Global Affairs. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Walker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Walker

ocdtrekkie 8y ago
COO and CEO are both positions of people who make decisions about the direction and conduct of the company. Those are people useful to question. Kent Walker is their head lawyer ("CLO") and head of PR ("SVP of Global Affairs"). His sole job is to help the actual decisionmakers get away with whatever they decided to do. No matter how many titles they give him, offering to send him will never be more than a literal slap in the face.
- tschwimmer 8y ago
  I don't think this argument is warranted. Corporate structure varies wildly among companies, especially among tech companies. You're right that General Counsel (here called Chief Legal Officer) isn't traditionally seen as on par with a C suite executive, but it may make sense for Google to send him especially if government affairs are handled by his reporting chain. By the way, I've never heard of PR being referred to as Global Affairs. In my experience that's typically a euphemism for a company's lobbying arm, which in this case would make a lot of sense, don't you think? PR at Google seems to be called "Communications" which is fairly standard in the Valley.
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    I may have over-simplified "Global Affairs" to "PR", but essentially, it means he's supposed to smooth over relations diplomatically with organizations, governments, people, etc. around the globe. Sure, that does sound exactly like who would speak to Congress, but again, like being a lawyer, global affairs doesn't make decisions for the company, it sells those decisions to other people. Congress wanted to question the people who made decisions at these companies, and Google refused.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

by kyrra 8y ago

ocdtrekkie 8y ago

COO and CEO are both positions of people who make decisions about the direction and conduct of the company. Those are people useful to question. Kent Walker is their head lawyer ("CLO") and head of PR ("SVP of Global Affairs"). His sole job is to help the actual decisionmakers get away with whatever they decided to do. No matter how many titles they give him, offering to send him will never be more than a literal slap in the face.

tschwimmer 8y ago
I don't think this argument is warranted. Corporate structure varies wildly among companies, especially among tech companies. You're right that General Counsel (here called Chief Legal Officer) isn't traditionally seen as on par with a C suite executive, but it may make sense for Google to send him especially if government affairs are handled by his reporting chain. By the way, I've never heard of PR being referred to as Global Affairs. In my experience that's typically a euphemism for a company's lobbying arm, which in this case would make a lot of sense, don't you think? PR at Google seems to be called "Communications" which is fairly standard in the Valley.
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  I may have over-simplified "Global Affairs" to "PR", but essentially, it means he's supposed to smooth over relations diplomatically with organizations, governments, people, etc. around the globe. Sure, that does sound exactly like who would speak to Congress, but again, like being a lawyer, global affairs doesn't make decisions for the company, it sells those decisions to other people. Congress wanted to question the people who made decisions at these companies, and Google refused.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]