Chief Technology Officer of the United States

Last updated

The United States Chief Technology Officer (US CTO) is an official in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. [1] The U.S. CTO helps the President and their team harness the power of technology and data to benefit all Americans. [2] The CTO works closely with others both across and outside government on a broad range of work including bringing technology expertise to bear on federal policy and programs, and promoting values-driven technological innovation. [3] [4] The CTO and their team have historically focused on leveraging technology and technical expertise to help create jobs, strengthen privacy protections, harness the benefits and mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence, create paths to improve government services with lower costs, higher quality and increased transparency and accessibility, help upgrade agencies to use open data and expand their data science capabilities, improve quality and reduce the costs of health care and criminal justice, increase access to broadband, bring technical talent into government for policy and modern operations input, improve community innovation engagement by agencies working on local challenges, and help keep the nation secure. [5] [6]

Contents

History

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama stated that he would appoint the first federal chief technology officer if elected to the presidency. [7] Aneesh Chopra was named by President Obama as the nation's first CTO in April 2009, and confirmed by the Senate on August 7, 2009. Chopra resigned effective February 8, 2012, and was succeeded by Todd Park, formerly the CTO of the Department of Health and Human Services. On September 4, 2014 Megan Smith was named as the CTO. President Trump named Michael Kratsios as U.S. CTO in May 2019, and he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on August 1, 2019. As of December 16, 2024, President Biden has yet to nominate a U.S. CTO. This is the longest the position has been unfilled since its inception.

NamePresidentTermPrincipal Deputy CTOs and Deputy CTOsReferences
Aneesh Chopra Portrait.jpg Aneesh Chopra * Barack Obama 2009–2012 Andrew McLaughlin [8] [9] [10] [11]
Todd Park.jpeg Todd Park 2012–2014 Ryan Panchadsaram, Jennifer Pahlka, Nicole Wong [12] [13]
Megan Smith official portrait.jpg Megan Smith 2014–2017 Cori Zarek, Alexander Macgillivray, Edward Felten, Ryan Panchadsaram [14] [15] [16] [17]
Vacant Donald Trump 2017–2019 Michael Kratsios
Michael Kratsios official photo (cropped).jpg Michael Kratsios * 2019–2021 Lynne Parker, Winter Casey [18]
Vacant Joe Biden 2021-Principal Deputy CTO: Alexander Macgillivray, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Karen Kornbluh; Deputy CTO: Lynne Parker, Wade Shen; Deputy CTO, Tech Capacity: Denice Ross; Deputy CTO, Policy: Austin Bonner; Deputy CTO, Privacy: Alan Mislove, Jolina Cuaresma. [19] [20]

See also

Notes

1. ^ ^ Only Aneesh Chopra and Michael Kratsios were confirmed by the Senate. Todd Park and Megan Smith were not.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Science and Technology Policy</span> Department of the United States government

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a department of the United States government, part of the Executive Office of the President (EOP), established by United States Congress on May 11, 1976, with a broad mandate to advise the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology</span> White House advisory board

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST was established by Executive Order 13226 on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, Executive Order 13539, by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, Executive Order 13895, and by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Science and Technology Council</span> The NSTC establishes national goals for science and technology.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is a council in the Executive Branch of the United States. It is designed to coordinate science and technology policy across the branches of federal government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivek Kundra</span> American government official

Vivek Kundra is a former American administrator who served as the first chief information officer of the United States from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama. He is currently the chief operating officer at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise customer experience management software based in NYC. He was previously a visiting Fellow at Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aneesh Chopra</span> American executive

Aneesh Paul Chopra is an American executive who served as the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States. He was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama and was at the White House through 2012. Chopra previously served as Virginia's Secretary of Technology under Governor Tim Kaine. Chopra was a candidate in 2013 for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He is the author of Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government (2014) and co-founder and president of CareJourney. In 2015 he joined Albright Stonebridge Group as a senior advisor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States</span> U.S. government position

The federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, also known as the United States Chief Information Officer, is the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, or the Office of the Federal CIO (OFCIO), which is part of the Office of Management and Budget. The President appoints the Federal CIO. The appointee does not require Senate confirmation. It was created by the E-Government Act of 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Zients</span> White House Chief of Staff since 2021

Jeffrey Dunston Zients is an American business executive and a government official in the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden. Zients is currently serving as the 31st White House chief of staff. Earlier in the Biden administration, he served as counselor to the president and White House coronavirus response coordinator from January 2021 to April 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Park</span>

Todd Park is a Korean American entrepreneur and government executive. He served as Chief Technology Officer of the United States and technology advisor for U.S. President Barack Obama. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of Devoted Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Smith</span> American engineer

Megan J. Smith is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president briefly at Google[x] where she co-created WomenTechmakers, is the former CEO of Planet Out and worked as an engineer on early smartphones at General Magic. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. Today Smith is the CEO and Founder of shift7. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until January, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidential Innovation Fellows</span>

The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is a competitive fellowship program that pairs top innovators from the private sector, non-profits, and academia with top innovators in government to collaborate on solutions that aim to deliver significant results in months, not years. It was established in 2012 and has operated continuously since then. The program focuses on generating measurable results, using innovation techniques from private industry such as Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Agile Development. It is a service of GSA's Technology Transformation Services department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleen V. Chien</span> American attorney and academic

Colleen V. Chien is an American legal scholar who is a law professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches, mentors students, and conducts cross-disciplinary research on innovation, intellectual property, and the criminal justice system, with a focus on how technology, data, and innovation can be harnessed to achieve their potential for social benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Sinai</span> Adjunct faculty and a senior in the Obama Administration

Nick Sinai is a venture capitalist, adjunct faculty at Harvard Kennedy School, author, and a former senior official in the Obama Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Panchadsaram</span>

Ryan Panchadsaram was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States. He assumed this role under the second Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Todd Park. Panchadsaram was formerly a senior advisor to Park, starting in 2013, and is credited as an early member of the Healthcare.gov rescue team. Panchadsaram is currently a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and co-founder of the United States Digital Response in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Kratsios</span> American government official (born 1986)

Michael John Kotsakas Kratsios is an American business executive and government official. He served as the fourth Chief Technology Officer of the United States at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, Kratsios served as President Donald Trump's top technology advisor. From July 10, 2020 to January 20, 2021, Kratsios was also the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Cochran (technologist)</span> American federal government official (born 1977)

Tom Cochran is a former Obama administration appointee, having served both in the White House and Department of State between 2011 and 2016. He is a partner and the Chief Growth Officer at 720 Strategies, as well as a keynote speaker, writer, and adjunct professor at American University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelvin Droegemeier</span> American research meteorologist (born 1958)

Kelvin Kay Droegemeier is an American research meteorologist, most recently having served as Director of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Droegemeier is known for his research in predicting the development of extreme weather events, and previously served as Oklahoma Secretary of Science and Technology and the Vice President for Research at the University of Oklahoma. He currently is serving as a Professor and Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Science and Policy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Erie Meyer is an American technologist and federal government executive. She currently serves as Chief Technologist of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previously served as Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under FTC Chair Lina Khan in 2021. Meyer had also served as a technologist in the office of then-FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra. Meyer is the co-founder of the networking list Tech Ladymafia with Aminatou Sow. In 2022, she was named a Tech Titan by Washingtonian magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cristin Dorgelo</span> American science policy person

Cristin Ann Dorgelo is the senior advisor for management at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Dorgelo is the president emeritus of the Association of Science and Technology Centers, where she previously served as president and CEO. Dorgelo served as the chief of staff at the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Barack Obama White House.

Executive Order 14110, titled Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence is the 126th executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden. Signed on October 30, 2023, the order defines the administration's policy goals regarding artificial intelligence (AI), and orders executive agencies to take actions pursuant to these goals. The order is considered to be the most comprehensive piece of governance by the United States regarding AI.

References

  1. Obama taps America's top techie The Register, 20 April 2009
  2. "Technology | OSTP | The White House", January 7, 2024.
  3. Sargent Jr., John (June 4, 2010). "A Federal Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration: Options and Issues for Consideration" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-29.
  4. "Technology | OSTP | The White House", January 7, 2024.
  5. "President's Weekly Address Efficiency and Innovation", April 18, 2009.
  6. " Remarks of Alexander Macgillivray at the State of the Net Conference", March 06, 2023.
  7. Obama '08. "Barack Obama: Connecting and Empowering All Americans Through Technology and Innovation" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-07-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Schatz, Amy (2009-04-18). "Tech Industry Cheers as Obama Taps Aneesh Chopra for CTO". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  9. "Nominations confirmed", "senate.gov", August 7, 2009.
  10. Ashely Southall (2012-01-27). "Top Technology Official Leaving the White House". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  11. Morozov, Evgeny (2009-06-03). "Not Everyone is Happy with Obama's Pick for Deputy CTO". Foreign Policy . Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  12. Hart, Kim (2012-03-11). "At SXSW, Todd Park talks startups". Politico. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  13. "Inside the Presidential Innovation Fellows program: A Q&A with the White House". Federal News Network. April 1, 2014.
  14. "Leadership Staff - Megan Smith". Office of Science and Technology Policy . Retrieved 2017-01-18 via National Archives.
  15. "White House names Google's Megan Smith the next Chief Technology Officer of the United States". The Washington Post . Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  16. Davis, Julie H. (2015-01-03). "Adviser Guides Obama Into the Google Age". The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  17. "White House Names Ed Felton Deputy Chief Technology Officer". whitehouse.gov . Retrieved 2020-01-18 via National Archives.
  18. "Trump Finally Names a U.S. CTO". Bloomberg News . Bloomberg. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  19. "U.S. Principal Deputy CTO Alexander Macgillivray departs". FedScoop. Scoop News Group. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  20. "Tech: Monthly People Moves". Axios Pro: Tech Policy. Axios. Retrieved 2024-12-15.