Todd Park: Who Is President Obama's New CTO?

On Friday, President Barack Obama appointed Todd Park, a 39-year-old former entrepreneur and founder of Athenahealth, to be the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer of the United States. Park takes over for Aneesh Chopra, the first U.S. CTO, who resigned in February. "It is possible to be entrepreneurial in the U.S. government," Park told Bloomberg Businessweek. "It's possible for government to execute major projects at Silicon Valley speed."...

...Park is all about open innovation and crowdsourcing to involve more people outside the government in government issues. Park understands that the government's problems cannot solely be solved from within, and that releasing health data to the public can help the government achieve their goals and create new business opportunities faster.

Fast-paced is what Park is used to. He and a small team built HealthCare.gov, the first government website that gives customers a searchable database of public and private health insurance plans according to zip code, in just 90 days. The Kaiser Family Foundation lists Park's HealthCare.gov as one of the first major highlights in the implementation of healthcare reform...