Yahoo Finance

As Inauguration Day approaches, Donald Trump and his team face the task of filling Cabinet posts and thousands of other government roles in his administration.

That long list will likely include a vacant spot for US chief technology officer, a role currently held by Megan Smith, the 52-year-old former Google (GOOG) executive who spent the last two years serving as assistant to the president in Washington, D.C. As the US’s second-ever CTO following Athenahealth co-founder Todd Park, Smith focused on improving three key areas during her tenure, including technology policy, creating a digital, open government, and increasing internet across the US.

Whomever the president-elect appoints as Smith’s successor ought to be a member of the tech community with vast industry experience, an impressive Rolodex to help recruit talent for other technical roles in Trump’s administration, and of course, a deep understanding of the many facets of tech infrastructure, including the cloud and big data.

Yahoo Finance has assembled a short wish list of candidates we’d like to see in the White House next year.

Mike Schroepfer
Chief Technical Officer, Facebook

Schroepfer, or “Schrep” as he’s called in Facebook’s (FB) swanky open offices, remains one of the social network’s internal stars. During his eight years at Facebook, his role has evolved from director of engineering to CTO. Simply put, Facebook’s 10-year vision encompasses three areas including artificial intelligence, connectivity and virtual reality, and Schroepfer is responsible for leading all of them. His accomplishments range from the minor, from helping improve A.I. so Facebook can better rank photos in the News Feed, to developing features that will eventually take advantage of VR. As CTO of the second-most trafficked website in the world (second only to Google), Schroepfer possesses the vision and technical chops needed to potentially serve as White House CTO.

Mike McCue
CEO, Flipboard

McCue, who was once rumored among Silicon Valley gossip circles as a potential CEO replacement for Jack Dorsey at Twitter (TWTR), is a longtime Silicon Valley veteran and serial entrepreneur, with stints at IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT). He also served as vice president of technology at the influential internet company Netscape during the late 1990s before eventually founding the digital magazine app Flipboard in 2009. Besides having decades of industry experience, McCue is extremely well-liked in tech and has the virtual Rolodex to match.

“The world is under massive disruption as we move to digital,” McCue told me in 2014 in an unpublished interview. “It’s the web, mobile and social. There’s a threat but also an opportunity to help people think and operate differently and really thrive.”