I’m Sorry Mr. Yang. Your Name Just Didn’t Come Up …
by John Paczkowski
Posted on November 6, 2008 at 11:32 AM PT
Obama will appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.”
– Excerpt from “The Blueprint for Change: Obama’s Plan for America”
The short list of candidates for President Elect Barack Obama’s cabinet-level CTO may be quite a bit shorter than Washington insiders claim. In the run-up to Tuesday’s election, Vint Cerf, Google’s (GOOG) chief Internet evangelist, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Princeton professor Ed Felten and Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeffrey Bezos were among the names of those who might be considered for the job. But it’s beginning to look more and more like the Obama camp already has someone in mind for the position: Julius Genachowski.
A longtime friend and adviser of Obama’s, Genachowski was named to the President-elect’s transition team today. And while that obviously doesn’t make him a sure thing for cabinet CTO, he’s certainly well-qualified for the job. After all, Genachowski was a former adviser to Federal Communications Commission chairs Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard. And with a lengthy stint at Internet company IAC, his acumen includes Internet business operations as well as Washington tech policy.
And then there’s this: Genachowski’s the guy who came up with the idea of cabinet-level CTO in the first place. Dibs!
Comments
vint cerf is the best candidate for this position, by far
i know most of those, including vint, who are listed here
vint has been in tech since the 1960s and co-invented tcp/ip among other things…tcp/ip is the foundation for the internet
Posted by Sam Harrison at November 6th, 2008 at 12:28 pmYang would be an excellent choice.
After all he would make sure our country doesn’t sell out to the highest bidder.
Posted by Mac Beach at November 6th, 2008 at 3:46 pm