Aneesh Paul Chopra
Born: July 13, 1972, in Trenton, N.J.
Education: bachelor's degree in public health, Johns Hopkins University, 1994; master's in public policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1997
Career path: 1994-95, investment banker at Morgan Stanley; 1997-2005, The Advisory Board Co.; 2006-09, Virginia's fourth secretary of technology
Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra has been tapped by President Barack Obama to serve as the nation's first chief technology officer.
The appointment was announced yesterday during the president's radio and Internet address to the nation. Obama also announced the appointment of Jeffrey Zients, a longtime management consultant, as chief performance officer to lead an effort to streamline government and cut costs.
"With the leadership of these individuals, I am confident that we can break our bad habits, put an end to the mismanagement that has plagued our government and start living within our means again," Obama said. "That is how we will get our deficits under control and move from recovery to prosperity."
Obama said Chopra "will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities, from creating jobs and reducing health-care costs, to keeping our nation secure."
Chopra, 36, has been Virginia technology secretary since 2006.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen. Mark R. Warner, both Democrats, released a joint statement praising the appointment.
"Secretary Chopra's spirit of innovation has played a key role in Virginia's continued ranking as a top-performing state, including the launch of Virginia's Productivity Investment Fund, which catalyzed promising ideas to lower costs and improve outcomes," Kaine said in the release. "His leadership on the role of technology to transform our health-care and educational systems directly aligns with President Obama's top priorities."
Warner appointed Chopra to several boards during his term as Virginia governor from 2002 to 2006, including the Southern Technology Council, the Board of Medical Assistance Services and the Electronic Health Records Task Force.
Michael Matthews, chief executive officer of MedVirginia, said Chopra has supported his agency's efforts to expand health-care technology. In one grant-funded project, the privately run MedVirginia helped put electronic records in four Richmond-area free clinics. In another effort, MedVirginia and the Social Security Administration created an electronic records-exchange system to help speed disability benefits.
"He has really done a lot to inspire people in the field as well as help to create a vision of how we can improve quality and efficiency in health care through the use of information technology," Matthews said.
"He is going in at a time when people recognize the importance of the investment in health information technology" and "when we can go quickly from all these demonstration and pilots to get these things in place," Matthews said.
The selection of Zients comes after Obama's first choice for the newly created position, Nancy Killefer, withdrew in February because of tax problems.
Zients, a founder and managing partner of the investment firm Portfolio Logic, also will serve as a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or TLsmith@timesdispatch.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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