Washington – Following two-and-a-half years on the job, Vivek Kundra plans to step down as the nation’s first chief information officer for a fellowship at Harvard University, the White House announced on Thursday.
He will depart in mid-August, serving as a joint fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Kundra was CTO of the District of Columbia when President Barack Obama appointed him to the newly created role in March 2009.
As federal CIO, he has been responsible for directing the policy and planning of federal IT investments, as well as overseeing federal IT spending.
“He has cracked down on wasteful IT spending, saved $3 billion in taxpayer dollars; moved the government to the cloud; strengthened the cybersecurity posture of the nation while making it more open, transparent and participatory,” wrote Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in a blog post.
“We are planning for a smooth transition, continuing these remarkable gains in changing the way the federal government manages IT.”
Related Links:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/16/our-nation-s-first-federal-cio
