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New Fed CIO Doesn't Have Gray Hairs - Yet
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| Written by Mel Duvall |
In the months prior to the appointment of a new Federal Chief Information Officer, speculation had mounted on who President Barack Obama might tap for the critical role - or to a corresponding position of Chief Technology Officer.
For the most part, the candidates were senior statesmen of the IT industry – from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, to Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, Vint Cerf, sometimes dubbed “Father of the Internet,” and even Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
It is for that reason that the naming of Vivek Kundra to the Federal CIO post came as somewhat of a surprise. Not only because Kundra is not as well known as the other names floated, but also because of his age – just 34.
Many had suspected Obama would name an experienced leader to the role because being the Federal CIO will not be an easy job. It will require deep diplomacy, leadership, and business skills to bring together the myriad of government agencies to advance the technology goals of the Obama administration.
To be sure, Kundra comes to the role with experience. He was formerly the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia and was also part of Obama’s technology transition team. He also has a reputation for adapting new Web technologies to government services. In less than two years as DC's CTO, Kundra moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others.
Still, I asked Bob Otto, former CIO of the United States Postal Service, about Kundra’s age and whether this might prove to be an obstacle in the role. He agreed the job will be difficult but seemed not so concerned about Kundra’s youth.
Otto believes Vivek’s appointment is one of three technology positions that will be named by the Obama administration. A Chief Performance Office and a CTO are still required, he believes. “(They) are jobs that will require dedication, ability to leverage the right skilled resources and the energy to pursue the various things that must be done,” he says. “Thus, I think Vivek being 34-years-of-age is a great advantage in this role.
“He has new ideas, utilizes new technologies, has lots of energy and really cares,” says Otto.
The challenges before Kundra and the rest of the technology team are many, but Otto points to five particular goals:
1. Openness of information and data and making information more transparent
2. Uses of cutting-edge technology
3. Federal technology spending to improve the performance of government operations
4. Information sharing between agencies
5. Lowering the cost of government operations
“So, the biggest challenge that will face Vivek and others, is that there are hundreds of federal agencies, and they all run their operations and functions in different ways, with different processes, tools, and infrastructure,” says Otto. “And they have all done a pretty good job at managing in the past. But if we are really serious about making these "transformational" changes, then we have to establish and impose some standards, and we have to reduce the number of computer operations across government, and we need to reduce everyone "reinventing" the wheel again, and implement some of the latest simplistic technology.”
Sounds like a very tall order, indeed. What do you think? Is Kundra the right person for the job, and is his lack of gray hairs a factor?
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