Nicole Wong

Nicole A. Wong is an American attorney, specializing in Internet, media and intellectual property law. In May 2013, she was selected by the Barack Obama administration to be the White House deputy chief technology officer (CTO) of the United States. She earned the nickname "the Decider" while she was vice president and deputy general counsel at Google, where she was responsible for arbitrating issues of censorship for Google. Wong stepped down as Deputy US CTO on August 16, 2014 to return with her family to California.

Early life and education

Nicole Wong, a fourth-generation Chinese American, was born in the United States. Her great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant who entered the United States through Canada and harvested potatoes in Idaho, worked at a laundry in Michigan and became a cook in Livermore, California. Her maternal grandmother was from Southern China. Until the 1950s, her grandparents were unable to own property in California. They helped found one of the first Chinese community banks in the country, and her grandfather became its vice president.