Oculus hires Valve's Anna Sweet, ex-Google X display head Mary Lou Jepsen

Oculus is adding two more big names to its company lineup: Mary Lou Jepsen (pictured above), "one of the top display innovators in the world," and Valve's Anna Sweet (pictured below), the company recently announced.

Jepsen, who has been honored as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in Time Magazine, is the Pixel Qi founder, as well as as co-founder and former chief technology officer of non-profit One Laptop Per Child. Prior to Oculus, she worked as the head of display division at Google X, a secretive facility working on high-level tech.

Jepsen's work at Oculus will involve "developing displays that will make it possible to push the boundaries of virtual reality technology," the company said. She joins the company in an executive role.

"Virtual reality has been seen as a niche product for the wealthy," Jepsen said in a statement. "Like One Laptop Per Child's vision of computers for the poorest children, we imagine VR as an enabling technology, a platform for mass adoption, for women and men, adults and children, rich and poor, everywhere."

Anna Sweet will act as Oculus' head of developer strategy after leaving a six-year stint at Valve in business development.

"Anna brings a wealth of industry experience from her time at Valve, where she led Steam software and hardware programs, working with partners around the world," Oculus said. "At Oculus, she'll be focused on building an ecosystem that rewards developers for creating and delivering the world's best VR experiences."

In a statement, Sweet said she's known she wanted to work in VR since the first time she put on a headset.

"The ways in which VR can impact our lives is boundless, and I'm extremely excited to work with the world class team at Oculus to build the VR platforms and experiences that will shape the future of technology," Sweet said. "I look forward to helping support and enable partners and developers across many industries to be a part of that."

Oculus also announced that it will host a virtual reality art competition called Render the Metaverse, and that the Oculus apps, games and other experiences can now be bought or sold in "all countries where Gear VR is sold."