Macon Phillips (born June 29, 1978)
[1] is a U.S. public servant who served as the
Coordinator of the
United States Department of State
Bureau of International Information Programs from 2013 to 2017. He reported to
Rick Stengel , the
Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs .
[2] Phillips is the former
White House Director of
New Media , in which capacity he had oversight responsibility for
WhiteHouse.gov .
[3] Phillips' work on WhiteHouse.gov closely coordinated with internet operations at the
Democratic National Committee ,
[1] which has responsibility for administration of the
BarackObama.com domain and website.
[4] At precisely 12:00 p.m.ET during the
inauguration of Barack Obama , Phillips oversaw the conversion of
Whitehouse.gov , the official website of the President of the United States. At 12:01 p.m., he posted the site's first
blog entry, titled: Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.
[5]
[6]
Early life and education
Phillips is a 1996 graduate of the
Randolph School in
Huntsville, Alabama
[7] and a
sociology graduate of
Duke University .
[8]
Political career
Phillips is a former director of strategy and communications for
Washington, D.C. -based
Blue State Digital , a private web design firm that eventually became closely tied to the
2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign for whom he worked for as an
internet strategist.
[1] Phillips had previously worked for
Democratic
Florida State Senator
Rod Smith as a senior strategist during the
2006 Florida gubernatorial election .
[9] He had also worked for
Ted Kennedy .
[8]
Phillips was the Director of New Media for the
Presidential transition of Barack Obama and had oversight responsibility for
Change.gov .
[7] In fact, he turned the website on the morning after the
2008 Barack Obama election victory speech .
[8] Prior to that he was involved in BarackObama.com and directed the technological initiative to announce the selection of
Joe Biden as the
Democratic nominee to be
Vice President of the United States .
[10] Philips' new media efforts during the
2008 United States presidential election helped raise vast sums of money for the Obama presidential campaign, while his
text messaging ,
online videos and
social networking skills led the campaign in many organizational and informational ways.
[7]
[11] Blue State Digital created and managed Obama's campaign site, which brought in a million
Facebook friends and about $500 million.
[12] In 2012 Phillips featured in
TechCrunch 's list of "20 Most Innovative People in Democracy."
[13]
In early August 2009, Phillips was publicly criticized for asking members of the public—via a blogpost at whitehouse.gov—to forward "fishy" emails regarding healthcare reform, raising privacy concerns in the process.
[14]
[15] On August 17, 2009, the White House closed down flag@whitehouse.gov, the e-mail address created to receive those reports.
[16]
[17]
[18]
In September 2013,
United States Secretary of State
John Kerry hired Philips as the head of the Bureau of International Information Programs in order to spearhead the overhaul of America's "digital diplomacy" efforts.
[19] On November 20, 2013, he met with the Russian participants of the U.S.-Russia Young Journalist Exchange.
[20]
Personal
Phillips is the brother of Metropolitan Opera lyric soprano
Susanna Phillips . He is married to Emily Price Phillips.
[21] They had a son, Max, in November 2012. His parents are Dr. Macon and Barbara Phillips.
[22]
See also
References
^
a
b
c Rutenberg, Jim and Adam Nagourney (January 25, 2009).
"Melding Obama's Web to a YouTube Presidency" .
The New York Times . Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
^ Rucker, Philip (September 19, 2013).
"Obama's officials to revamp digital diplomacy at State Department" .
The Washington Post . Retrieved March 16, 2014 .
^ Vargas, Jose Antonio and Sarah Cohen (January 21, 2009).
"Democracy Online: WhiteHouse.gov Turns the Page" .
The Washington Post . Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
^ Curry, Tom (February 7, 2009).
"Democrats take control of Obama's 'Web.org': DNC aims to nourish Internet-based organization that helped elect him" . NBC News .
Microsoft . Retrieved March 2, 2009 .
^ Schonfeld, Erick (January 20, 2009).
"Whitehouse.gov Has A New Face, And a Blog" .
The Washington Post . Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
^ Phillips, Macon (January 20, 2009).
"Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov" .
whitehouse.gov . Retrieved January 28, 2009 – via
National Archives .
^
a
b
c Campbell,Steve (November 15, 2008).
"Randolph grad is Obama aide" .
The Huntsville Times . Alabama Live LLC. Archived from
the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
^
a
b
c Benderoff, Eric (February 24, 2009).
"Macon Phillips: The man behind WhiteHouse.gov: President Barack Obama's new media director addresses both transparency, technology in office" .
Chicago Tribune . Retrieved February 24, 2009 .
^ Rushing, J. Taylor (August 26, 2006).
"Web packs political punch The top four Florida governor hopefuls have sites they hope will click with primary voters" .
The Florida Times-Union .
Newsbank . Retrieved January 29, 2009 .
^ Elliott, Philip (January 20, 2009).
"Obama texts warn of parking, train problems" .
The Washington Post . Retrieved January 28, 2009 . [
dead link ]
^ Sifry, Micah L. (November 12, 2008).
"Obama Transition Names New Media Staff" . Tech President . Personal Democracy Forum. Archived from
the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
^ Darcy, Darlene (January 23, 2009).
"A wired White House" . Washington Business Journal .
American City Business Journals, Inc. Retrieved October 28, 2009 .
^
"The 20 Most Innovative People in Democracy" .
TechCrunch . November 3, 2012.
^
Sen. John Cornyn (August 5, 2009).
"United States Senator John Cornyn, Texas" (Press release). Retrieved August 20, 2009 .
^ Ambinder, Marc (August 4, 2009).
"Flag@Whitehouse.gov" .
The Atlantic . Retrieved August 20, 2009 .
^ Miller, Sunlen and Jake Tapper (August 18, 2009).
"Political Punch: Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper" .
ABC News . Retrieved August 20, 2009 .
^ Thrush, Glenn (August 19, 2009).
"W.H. can't assuage Cornyn" .
The Politico . Retrieved August 20, 2009 .
^ Phillips, Macon (August 17, 2009).
"An Update on "Reality Check" " .
whitehouse.gov . Retrieved August 20, 2009 – via
National Archives .
^ Rucker, Philip (September 19, 2013).
"Obama's officials to revamp digital diplomacy at State Department" .
The Washington Post . Archived from
the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2013 .
^
"U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Successfully Concludes Second Young Journalist Exchange" .
United States Department of State . November 20, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2013 .
^
"Macon Phillips: White House Director of New Media (since January 2009)" .
The Washington Post . July 25, 2012. Archived from
the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2013 .
^ McCarter, Mark (May 31, 2013).
"Huntsville's Macon Phillips playing key role in Obama White House as director for new media" .
AL.com . Retrieved October 5, 2013 .
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