Obama picks Indian as US’ first chief tech officer

Washington: US President Barack Obama on Saturday named a Harvardeducated Indian-American to the new post of Chief Technology Officer in an appointment muchawaited by Silicon Valley.
As the country’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, 36, will use technology to “improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs’’, Obama said in his weekly address to the nation.
“In this role, Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities—from creating jobs and reducing healthcare costs to keeping our nation secure,’’ the President added.
Chopra, whose background is in health policy, has served as secretary of technology for Virginia. He earned his undergraduate degree from
Johns Hopkins University and a masters in public policy from Harvard University.
Obama said Chopra would work closely with Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, who’s responsible for setting technology policy and federal technology spending, which amounts to over $70 billion a year.
The appointment of the relatively unknown Chopra came as something of a surprise in technology circles, where speculation over the past three months had focused on more high-profile candidates. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were among the top vote-getters in a poll for the best candidate in a tech blog.

Aneesh Chopra, US’ Chief Technology Officer (top), and Vivek Kundra, his information counterpart