Tech-Savvy Duo Steps Onto Federal Stage

Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra met nearly a decade ago as entrepreneurs in Northern Virginia's Indian American business community. They worked together in Gov Timothy Kaine's administration and then as technology and innovation advisers on President Obama's transition team. Now the two longtime friends will work in tandem to help meet Obama's ambitious goals of using technology to improve public access to government data, create new jobs, expand broadband services, reform the way health records are stored and build a modern electric grid. They will work within the White House with direct access to the president. Chopra will be in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Kundra in the Office of Management and Budget. Some in Washington's technology policy circles had questioned whether the jobs were too large and unwieldy for tech czars who have never worked on the federal stage and will now have to navigate deep-rooted federal agency structures and processes. There also had been much debate about whether the CTO job should be filled by a tech industry veteran rather than someone with more policy experience. "We are both going to be driving innovation, whether it's health IT and broadband or how federal agencies use technology," Kundra said in an interview. "We're also embracing the open government principles to make sure we are democratizing data and to make sure agencies deliver results. At the same time, we need to leverage the ingenuity of the American people and the private sector to help us."