Roadmap for the first CTO

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is hard at work gathering facts, making recommendations and helping to put together the new administration. One key task is finding the right person to be the nation's first federal chief information technology officer.

The CTO job will focus on technology policy issues, and allow a government facing enormous problems to make IT a more useful and effective part of government. A top priority will be getting rid of redundant information technology systems, many of which do not operate across agencies. In the long run, improving these IT systems will save money.

"Budget pressures are absolutely enormous," said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, which represents contracting firms. "More efficient contracting is an attainable goal. The question is, what are the tools to becoming more efficient, and how are we going to manage and administer them?"

There are a number of names being floated as possible candidates for this new job. They include Julius Genachowski, a key member of Obama's transition team and a former Federal Communications Commission advisor; Vint Cerf, who helped develop the original Internet; and Hewlett-Packard's chief technology officer, Shane Robison.

Others mentioned:

• Alan Balutis, who has served as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and is currently a distinguished fellow at Cisco.
• Bob Gourley, chief technology officer at advisory firm CrucialPoint LLC and formerly CTO of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
• Dawn Meyerriecks, a consultant in Washington, D.C., and former CTO of the Defense Information Systems Agency. Meyerriecks has also done stints at Sun Microsystems and AOL.
• Harry Raduege Jr., the former director of DISA and now chairman of the Deloitte Center for Network Innovation.

No matter who is named, one thing is certain: The first CTO will have many opportunities and even more hurdles in shaping 21st century IT for government and the private sector.

For more on this high-level appointment:
- check out this WashingtonPost.com article
- also see this Forbes.com article

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