Facebook’s new global policy VP brings White House, online payments experience

Facebook has hired away a White House staffer to be the fifth full-time member of its Washington D.C.-based office. Marne Levine, who is the chief of staff at the White House National Economic Council, is joining the social network as its vice president of global public policy.

She’ll oversee and coordinate Facebook’s interactions with governments and NGOs and build out the company’s policy teams in Asia, the Americas and Europe, according to spokesperson Andrew Noyes. Tim Sparapani will continue as the director of the D.C. office and manage outreach to Congress and the federal government, while Richard Allan will continue to manage the company’s policy efforts in Europe.

Levine brings an interesting mix of experience to Facebook. Notably, she has worked in online peer-to-peer payments, after serving as the director of product management at Revolution Money. That startup, founded by former AOL co-founder Steve Case and pitched as “PayPal meets Mastercard,” raised $42 million from Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The company struggled to live up to its hype amid the global financial crisis, and American Express ultimately agreed to buy it last November for $300 million. That experience, particularly in managing privacy and compliance issues, could help Facebook as it scales up its virtual currency Credits.

Her background, which several stints under Larry Summers both at the economic council and at Harvard University, is also a little reminiscent of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s history. Sandberg also served as a chief of staff to Summers when he was the Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration.

“I’m excited that Marne is joining my team as Vice President, Global Public Policy. With over 70 percent of our users living outside the United States, her unique mix of government and Internet industry experience will be invaluable to help Facebook address some of the most interesting questions at the intersection of technology and public policy,” said Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of global communications, marketing and public policy.