SandboxAQ Appoints Andrew McLaughlin as Chief Operating Officer

Former Googler, betaworks partner and SandboxAQ senior advisor will help the company expand its global operations and scale its AI solutions across industries

SandboxAQ announced it has named veteran executive Andrew McLaughlin as its first Chief Operating Officer (COO). McLaughlin will be responsible for scaling SandboxAQ’s AI and quantum business units. SandboxAQ focuses on Large Quantitative Models (LQMs), which drive SandboxAQ’s platforms in sectors such as biopharma, chemicals, medical devices, and aerospace.

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McLaughlin joins SandboxAQ as COO after serving as a senior advisor to the company since 2021. Prior to SandboxAQ, McLaughlin founded, built and scaled a range of teams, organizations, and tech startups, serving as the founding VP and Chief Policy Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the first Head of Global Public Policy at Google, and Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States.

Following his tenure in the White House, McLaughlin was a partner at betaworks, a venture fund and startup studio which invests in, accelerates, and builds companies, most recently focusing on AI and applied machine learning. During that time, McLaughlin also served as CEO of two betaworks companies, Instapaper and Digg, and as EVP at Tumblr and Medium. He spent four years as the founding president and COO of the scalable, sustainable urban architecture and construction startup Assembly OSM. He has been a co-founder and partner at Higher Ground Labs since 2017.

“Andrew’s strong experience in operations, technology businesses and the public sector will help SandboxAQ scale our global operations and achieve rapid, sustainable growth across our key sectors,” said Jack D. Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ. “Andrew has already hit the ground running as COO and will help us scale the company to greater impact with our customers and partners.”

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“SandboxAQ is at the forefront of developing AI and advanced technology solutions that tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges in healthcare, finance, cybersecurity, government, and other sectors – backed by world-class investors and driven by some of the most brilliant minds in the business,” said McLaughlin. “As an early SandboxAQ advisor, I know the company very well and have been involved in several key initiatives. I am excited to work with Jack and the team even more closely to take us to the next level of scale.”

In the academic world, McLaughlin has held positions as Senior Fellow in Cybersecurity and Internet Governance at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School and fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet & Society; Fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University; and Senior Fellow and Associate Director at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. In 2017-2018, he served as the founding Executive Director of the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale University.

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