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I don't think this argument is warranted. Corporate structure varies wildly among companies, especially among tech companies. You're right that General Counsel
by 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 agoI 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.