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Aneesh Chopra New CTO for the United States

April 20, 2009

"The selection of Aneesh Chopra is great choice for the United States.  I served with Aneesh as a broad member of the Southern Technology Council for four years, two of which were during Governor Mark Warner's time as Chairman.  Aneesh  is truly an outstanding young man who has set a new standard as the CTO for the state of Virginia and will do the same thing for our country", said Tom Persons, CEO for the South Carolina Technology Alliance.

 

Tech Industry Cheers as Obama Taps Aneesh Chopra for CTO

By Amy Schatz  Wall Street Jounal

It may not be the Cabinet-level post that some were hoping for, but President Obama finally named the U.S.’s first chief technology officer on Saturday morning during his weekly radio and Internet address.

 

Aneesh Chopra, currently Virginia’s secretary of technology, got the nod and will soon join his former colleague Vivek Kundra, the national chief information officer, on a team tasked with using technology to make government more efficient. “Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities — from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure,” Obama said in his Saturday radio address.

 

“Aneesh and Jeffrey [Zients, the newly appointed chief innovation officer] will work closely with our chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs,” he said. During the campaign, the high tech community buzzed about who might fill the CTO slot, which the campaign suggested would be cabinet-level position. Plenty of bold-faced names were floated as possibilities, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt (who quickly shot down that speculation). Silicon Valley’s excitement about the job appeared to fade somewhat over the past few months, however, when it became unclear how much of a role the CTO would have in setting national technology policy. President Obama’s chief technology adviser during the campaign, former venture capitalist Julius Genachowski, was considered a candidate for the job but he opted to head the Federal Communications Commission instead. Genachowski is still awaiting Senate confirmation as FCC chairman.

 

Chopra will be an assistant to the President and his formal title will be associate director for technology under the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy office. He’s led tech efforts for the state of Virginia since 2003 and previously worked as managing director with the Advisory Board Company, a health-care industry advisory and research firm.

Silicon Valley execs and tech bloggers sounded genuinely excited about Obama’s choice Saturday morning and tech industry lobbying groups TechNet and the Business Software Alliance quickly released statements of support, as did several tech heavyweights.

 

“Aneesh’s experience as Virginia’s secretary of technology and that state’s CTO has provided highly relevant preparation for this new role, and I am confident he will be a major asset to the Administration,” said Mitch Kapor, the Lotus Development Corp. founder who said he got to know Chopra during the campaign.