Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Aneesh Chopra is the former (and first) U.S. Chief Technology Officer. As an Assistant to the President, he designed the National Wireless Initiative, helped launch Startup America and executed an “open innovation” strategy across the government built on private sector collaboration—opening up data, convening on standards and staffing “lean government startups.” In his book, Innovative State: How New Technologies can Transform Government (May 2014), he focuses on how we can tap entrepreneurial problem solvers to address challenges in health, energy and education markets among other public and regulated sectors. Chopra is currently the co-founder and executive vice president of Hunch Analytics, a startup focused on improving the productivity of public and regulated sectors of the economy through data analytics. In 2011, Chopra was named to Modern Healthcare’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare (#39) and in 2008, to Government Technology magazine’s Top 25 in their Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers issue. Upon his departure, President Obama noted, “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.”