We don’t have a CTO yet, but we do now have a national CIO, a 34-year-old by the name of Vivek Kundra. Early reports suggest that his job portfolio will include a lot of things one would expect a CTO to do, which makes sense since Kundra’s previous job was Washington DC’s CTO. And by all accounts, he was exceptional it.
Maybe a CTO will be next. He or she will likely be Kundra’s close partner. Together, they’ll be doing some of the most cutting edge stuff in the administration, like using technology to democratize government information, encourage citizen engagement, and increase transparency across the executive branch.
Oh, and by the way, my favorite part of this WaPo profile of Kundra?
Kundra was born in India and moved to Tanzania at a young age. His family came to Gaithersburg when he was 11. His first language is Swahili.
One of his earliest memories after moving to Maryland is seeing a TV commercial for dog food. “I was shocked,” he said. “I was used to seeing people starve in Africa. It was mind-boggling to me that people could afford to feed their dogs!”