The US will have an innovative government after President Obama appointed Aneesh Chopra as the nation’s first chief technology officer on April 18, as the new chief technology officer has been focused for the past three years on the specific technology challenges of government.
Chopra has demonstrated that he has the skills for working within the bounds of government policy, competing constituencies, budgets that often contain legislative mandates, regulations that may no longer be relevant but are still in force, and many other unique constraints.
In his three-year tenure as secretary of technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers ranked Virginia No. 1 in technology management.
Chopra understands that government technologists need to act more like their counterparts in Silicon Valley. He has a particular interest in service sector innovation; he wants to put technology to work to make us better at health care, at education, at creating a vibrant economy. These are also, incidentally, the goals of the federal CTO job, as described in one White House briefing document.
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