Vivek Kundra was appointed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on March 27, 2007 to the Cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. As CTO, Kundra leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), an organization of over 600 staff that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors.

 

Kundra brings to the role of CTO a diverse record that combines technology and public policy experience in government, private industry, and academia.

 

Before Kundra came to the District, Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed him Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state’s history.  Kundra developed technology innovations to streamline government and enhance business opportunity, including a dashboard that uses business intelligence to maximize the participation of citizens in state procurement. In 2007 he assembled the largest United States trade delegation ever to visit India, comprised of over one hundred business leaders, which resulted in a $99 million investment for the state.

 

In the private sector, Kundra led technology companies serving national and international customers. He served as Vice President of Marketing for Evincible Software, a company focused on electronic signatures and identity management for the financial services and defense sectors. As CEO of Creostar, he advised clients in government and industry on IT governance and strategy.

 

Earlier Kundra served as Director of Infrastructure Technology for Arlington, Virginia. Within nine months after taking the post on September 11, 2001, he built the first high-speed municipal I-Net in the country. He also advanced business and economic development in Arlington, Zurich, Paris, Berlin and Wales through the World Cities Alliance.

 

Kundra has also served as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland, teaching courses in the theory and application of new technologies ranging from wireless protocols to artificial intelligence.

 

Kundra holds an MS in information technology and a BS in psychology from the University of Maryland. He is also a graduate of University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.

 

Since Kundra became District CTO, he and OCTO have been honored with a series of major information technology (IT) awards. In 2008, InfoWorld Magazine named Kundra among its “CTO 25,” 25 senior IT leaders from government, nonprofits, and private industry who apply creativity, tech savvy and management skills to drive excellent results. In addition, the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium recognized Kundra among outstanding IT innovators who use leadership skills, business-technology acumen and out-of the-box thinking to address ever-increasing challenges facing their organizations.