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Steve Jobs's Wife to Join Michelle Obama at State of the Union

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

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Among the guests who will sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight's State of the Union address will be Steve Jobs's widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, the White House revealed today.

According to a list posted by Time, Jobs will be joined by Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, and retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, among others.

Laurene Powell Jobs is the founder of Emerson Collective, which focuses on helping those in underserved communities build better lives, a White House bio said. In December 2010, Jobs was named to the White House Council for Community Solutions, which advises the president on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to solve specific community needs.

After Steve Jobs passed away on Oct. 5, President Obama said in a statement that he "was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it."

In February 2011, Obama traveled to San Francisco, where he met with Jobs, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Over the weekend, a New York Times article said that one topic of conversation was what it would take to get an iPhone produced in the United States. Jobs was not hopeful; "Those jobs aren't coming back," he told Obama.

Instagram's Krieger, meanwhile, takes his place next to the First Lady several weeks after the president joined the photo service. He joined under the username barackobama and his re-election campaign is inviting supporters to share photos from the campaign using the tag #obama2012.

Mark Kelly is the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot just over a year ago and announced recently that she would retire from the House. He was also with NASA for 25 years, traveling to the International Space Station four times, before retiring on Oct. 1.

President Obama will deliver his State of the Union tonight at 9pm Eastern. For more, see PCMag's guide to watching the speech online.

About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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