The United States Chief Technology Officer (US CTO) is an official in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.[1] The U.S. CTO helps the President and their team harness the power of technology and data to benefit all Americans.[2] The CTO works closely with others both across and outside government on a broad range of work including bringing technology expertise to bear on federal policy and programs, and promoting values-driven technological innovation.[3] [4] The CTO and their team have historically focused on leveraging technology and technical expertise to help create jobs, strengthen privacy protections, harness the benefits and mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence, create paths to improve government services with lower costs, higher quality and increased transparency and accessibility, help upgrade agencies to use open data and expand their data science capabilities, improve quality and reduce the costs of health care and criminal justice, increase access to broadband, bring technical talent into government for policy and modern operations input, improve community innovation engagement by agencies working on local challenges, and help keep the nation secure.[5] [6]
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama stated that he would appoint the first federal chief technology officer if elected to the presidency.[7] Aneesh Chopra was named by President Obama as the nation's first CTO in April 2009, and confirmed by the Senate on August 7, 2009. Chopra resigned effective February 8, 2012, and was succeeded by Todd Park, formerly the CTO of the Department of Health and Human Services. On September 4, 2014 Megan Smith was named as the CTO. President Trump named Michael Kratsios as U.S. CTO in May 2019, and he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on August 1, 2019. As of, President Biden has yet to nominate a U.S. CTO. This is the longest the position has been unfilled since its inception.
| colspan=2 | Name ! | President | Term | Deputy CTOs | References | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Current) | Donald Trump | 2014–present | [8] --> | ||||
| Aneesh Chopra | Barack Obama< | -- | Removed, see rowspan above --> | 2009–2012 | Andrew McLaughlin | [9] [10] [11] [12] | |
| Todd Park | 2012–2014 | Ryan Panchadsaram, Jennifer Pahlka, Nicole Wong | [13] [14] | ||||
| Megan Smith | 2014–2017 | Cori Zarek, Alexander Macgillivray, Edward Felten, Ryan Panchadsaram | [15] [16] [17] [18] | ||||
| Vacant | Donald Trump | 2017–2019 | Michael Kratsios | ||||
| Michael Kratsios | 2019–2021 | Lynne Parker, Winter Casey | [19] | ||||
| Vacant | Joe Biden | 2021- | Alexander Macgillivray, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Karen Kornbluh, Denice Ross, Austin Bonner, Lynne Parker, Wade Shen, Alan Mislove, Dominique Duval-Diop | ||||
1. Only Aneesh Chopra and Michael Kratsios were confirmed by the Senate. Todd Park and Megan Smith were not.