Google Hires Mistique Cano as Manager of Global Communications and Public Affairs

Google has searched out a new manager of global communications and public affairs for its Washington office.  Mistique Cano comes from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, where she was vice president of communications.  She loves all the gadgets she can get her hands on now that she's working for the tech trailblazer.  "I think that's actually the coolest perk about Google so far.  It's that you get to test out all these new applications before they're released," she says.  Take the lowliest of devices, the office telephone.  At Google, "if you are away from your desk, you can tell [the phone] where to ring," Cano says.  "But the coolest thing is, it will transcribe all your voice-mail messages."

Cano, 29, is from Corpus Christi, Texas, and she admits that she was a precocious policy wonk.  "I've always been interested in politics and [its] intersection with [the] press," she says.  "Most kids would come home from school and have their snack and watch Saved by the Bell or whatever, but I used to come home and watch the White House press briefings."  She went on to earn a degree in political communication at George Washington University.

Cano worked for pollster Stan Greenberg at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.  She was press secretary for John Kerry's presidential campaign in Pennsylvania, a job that involved a lot of traveling around the Keystone State.  Outside of work, Cano says, she's a foodie who burns off the calories by running. (Gregg Sangillo, National Journal)