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Vivek Kundra

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Vivek Kundra
Vivek Kundra in 2009
United States Chief Information Officer
Incumbent
Assumed office
March 5, 2009
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byKaren Evans
Personal details
Born (1974-10-09) October 9, 1974 (age 50)
New Delhi, India
Alma materUniversity of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland University College

Vivek Kundra (Hindi: विवेक कुंद्रा; born October 9, 1974) is the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States of America.[1][2] The E-Government Act of 2002 established the role of a Federal Chief Information Officer within the Office of Management and Budget.[3] He has indicated that he will also have the role of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) administrator for e-government and information technology.[4]

He served in Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet as the Chief Technology Officer for the District and, before that, as Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology in Governor Tim Kaine's cabinet.

Early life and education

Kundra was born in New Delhi, India on October 9, 1974. He moved to Tanzania with his family at the age of one, when his father joined a group of professors and teachers from all over the world to provide education to local residents. Kundra spent his early childhood in a diverse, multicultural environment and learned Swahili as his first language, in addition to Hindi and English. His family moved to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area when he was eleven.[5][6]

Kundra attended college at the University of Maryland College Park where he received a degree in Psychology. He earned a masters degree in Information Technology, from University of Maryland University College.[1][7] Additionally, he is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.[8]

Professional Recognition

Kundra has been recognized by InfoWorld among the top 25 CTO's in the country.[9] He was also recognized as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year by the nation's second largest technology hub, the Tech Council of Maryland,[10] for his pioneering work to drive transparency, engage citizens and lower the cost of government operations.

The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium also recognized Kundra among outstanding IT innovators who use leadership skills, business-technology acumen and out-of-the-box thinking to address ever-increasing challenges facing their organization.[11] Additionally, upon announcing his appointment, the White House asserted that he is known for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security, and IT portfolio management. [1]

Career

Kundra served as Director of Infrastructure Technology for Arlington County, Virginia.[12]

Governor Tim Kaine appointed Kundra Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history. Kundra developed technology innovations to streamline government and enhance business opportunity.[7]

He then served on Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia.[1] In this capacity, he was recognized for his work in developing programs to spur open source and crowdsourced applications using publicly accessible Web services from the District of Columbia. Kundra championed the D.C. Data Catalog giving the public access to more than 300 data sets held by DC's agencies.[13] He later used that data as the source material for an initiative called Apps for Democracy. The contest yielded 47 web, iPhone and Facebook applications from residents in 30 days. Mayor Fenty stated that the program cost the District "50 thousand dollars total and we estimate that we will save the district millions of dollars in program development costs".[14] This cost-benefit was claimed by the DC government as savings in internal operational and contractual costs.[15] "Taking a page" from Kundra [16] this initiative is now being mirrored by New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg in launching a "BigApps" contest housed at http://www.nycbigapps.com/.[17] The city of San Francisco has also recently launched a data portal similar to that of DC.[13]

Kundra's efforts to use cloud-based Web applications in the District government have also been considered innovative within government.[18] Following the DC example driven by Kundra, the city of Los Angeles is now taking steps to adopt the cloud computing model for its IT needs.[19] A DC spokeswoman said that the District of Columbia paid $479,560 for the Enterprise Google Apps license and saved $3.5 million compared to an earlier plan.[19] Since its deployment in July 2008 Google Apps is available to 38,000 DC city employees, 4,000 of whom are actively using it. Taking a cautious approach, as of August 20, 2009, DC has not yet made a decision to replace Microsoft Exchange with Gmail, having a policy "to put into Google Apps only information that could be transmitted via e-mail" and "not placing sensitive data into Google Apps."[19]

Prior to his appointment as CIO, Mr. Kundra served as technology adviser on President Barack Obama's transition team.[2]

Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Kundra was officially named by President Obama on March 5, 2009 to the post of Federal CIO[2] a position that was previously filled by Karen S. Evans.[20]

The Federal Chief Information Officer is responsible for directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments as well as for oversight of federal technology spending. The Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and maintains information security and privacy across the federal government. According to President Obama, as Chief Information Officer, Kundra "will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible."[1] In order to further President Obama's overall technology agenda, Mr. Kundra, Jeffrey Zients, the Chief Performance Officer, and Aneesh Chopra, the Chief Technology Officer, will all work closely together.[21]

Kundra has made it a priority to focus on the following areas: (1) ensuring openness and transparency, (2) lowering the cost of government, (3) cyber-security, (4) participatory democracy, and (5) innovation.[22] One of Mr. Kundra's first projects was the launch of Data.gov, a site for providing access to raw government data.[4] Another project launched by Mr. Kundra in June 2009 was the Federal IT Dashboard, which gives an assessment (in terms of Cost, Schedule and CIO ranking) of many large government IT projects.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Office of the Press Secretary, The White House (2008-03-05) "President Obama Names Vivek Kundra Chief Information Officer"
  2. ^ a b c Kim Hart (2009-03-05). "D.C. Tech Chief Tapped for White House Slot". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ "E-Government Act 2002"
  4. ^ a b http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/vivek-kundra-federal-cio-in-hi.html
  5. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401235_3.html
  6. ^ http://www.sorenseninstitute.org/newsroom/entry/political-leaders-2007-profile-vivek-kundra
  7. ^ a b District of Columbia, OCTO"Vivek Kundra, Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia Government"
  8. ^ http://ctovision.com/2009/02/vivek-kundra-the-alpha-cto/
  9. ^ Gruman, Galen (2008-06-08). "The best CTOs of 2008". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2009-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Michelle Ferrone (2008-11-07). "The Tech Council of Maryland Announces Award Winners of 2008 CIO&CTO LIVE! Awards". Tech Council MD. Retrieved 2009-03-05. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 53 (help)
  11. ^ http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/octo/section/2/release/13967/year/2008/month/6
  12. ^ Kady, Martin II (2008-03-08)"Businesses team to create Arlington response system" Washington Business Journal
  13. ^ a b [1]
  14. ^ "Fenty on Apps for Democracy"
  15. ^ "Apps for Democracy"
  16. ^ National Journal (06-29-2009)"Bloomberg Unveils Gov't Apps Contest"
  17. ^ New York Future Initiative (06-29-2009)"Bloomberg Announces 'Big Apps' Contest"
  18. ^ http://www.gcn.com/print/27_28/47565-1.html
  19. ^ a b c news.cnet.com (08-20-2009)"Los Angeles gets its Google Apps groove"
  20. ^ Kash, Wyatt (January 19, 2009). "The Karen Evans era". Government Computer News. 1105 Media. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  21. ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Weekly-Address-President-Obama-Discusses-Efforts-to-Reform-Spending/
  22. ^ http://www.govtech.com/gt/653151
  23. ^ http://www.govtech.com/gt/698705?topic=290182
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