NEW YORK: Two-and-half years into a stellar stint at the White House later whiz kid Indian American Aneesh Chopra quit his position as the country’s first White House Chief Technology Officer.
Chopra, it is rumored, is considering a future career in politics.
The White House announced Jan 27, the departure of Chopra, Assistant to the President and the federal government’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Chopra came into office in May 2009 and his last day will be Feb 8.
President Obama said, “As the federal government’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra did groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century. Aneesh found countless ways to engage the American people using technology, from electronic health records for veterans, to expanding access to broadband for rural communities, to modernizing government records. His legacy of leadership and innovation will benefit Americans for years to come, and I thank him for his outstanding service.”
As the United States Chief Technology Officer, Chopra served as an Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology within the Office of Science & Technology Policy. He worked to advance the President’s technology agenda by fostering new ideas and encouraging government-wide coordination to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.
Prior to his last appointment, he served as Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia from January 2006 until April 2009. He previously served as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded healthcare think tank. Chopra was named to Government Technology magazine’s Top 25 in their Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers issue in 2008.
According to Politico, in his role as CTO, Chopra has been an advocate for integrating government and technology to create new products and services. He was a frequent visitor to Silicon Valley, where he promoted the Obama administration’s tech policies.
Most recently, Chopra was one of three authors of the White House blog spot critical of controversial copyright legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act.
He appeared Zelig-like wherever the tech industry gathered, promoting the idea that the federal government is changing and it needs innovators to work on the nation’s biggest policy problems, Politico said.
India Post News Service
