Washington's heavier hand in the tech business is changing who these companies have as directors

These directors would have previously been people who would know something about the tech business.  Now they are people who can help with government regulations.  This is just a measure of how much more involved the Federal government has gotten in tech businesses in just a few year period of time.  From the WSJ:

. . . The latest sign of the tightening Valley-Beltway connection came in June when local search service Yelp Inc. tapped former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs to join its board of directors. Online-payment company Square Inc. added former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to its board last year. Other start-ups say they are hunting for similar board recruits.
 Political figures from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to former Vice President Al Gore have been part of the Bay Area intelligentsia for years, often as advisers to large venture-capital firms or through university affiliations. Large tech companies such as Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have also staffed up on Washington insiders in recent years as regulatory scrutiny on them has intensified. Facebook added Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff, to its board last year.
Smaller companies are now getting in the game as they become tangled in policy issues ranging from privacy to antitrust to financial regulation.
"They are containing the threat early," says Dennis Carey, vice chairman of recruiting giant Korn/Ferry International. Mr. Carey says young tech companies are getting ahead of potential scrutiny partly to gain credibility with potential investors before an initial public offering. Mr. Carey says he has several assignments for companies looking to add someone with Washington experience to their boards, though he declined to name them. . . .