US President Barack Obama appointed a former Microsoft executive on Thursday as the new government technology chief. Steven VanRoekel, who worked at Microsoft from 1994 to 2009, replaces Vivek Kundra, who is stepping down as federal chief information officer to take up a fellowship at Harvard University.
As CIO, VanRoekel will direct policy and strategic planning for government information technology and will be responsible for the $80 billion in annual federal technology spending. At Microsoft, VanRoekel was an assistant to Bill Gates and the senior director of the US software giant's Windows Server and Tools Division. VanRoekel left Microsoft in 2009 to serve as managing director of the US Federal Communications Commission and moved to the US Agency for International Development earlier this year to serve as executive director of citizen and organisational engagement.