U.S. CTO Todd Park Out To Spur Entrepreneurship With Data “Jujitsu”

The chief technology officer of a company can have a wide range of responsibilities—from overseeing development of innovative new products to making sure servers stay up. But what about the chief technology officer of the United States of America? The position is barely three years old, created by President Obama in 2009, and is evolving fast. But does it involve fighting computer viruses and providing IT security, making government websites more accessible to the public, efficient technology purchasing, innovative new technology initiatives, working with startups, or what?

The answer is all of the above—with the exception of the fighting hackers and computer security part. Xconomy previously did this interview with the country’s first “chief techie,” Aneesh Chopra, who stepped down from the role earlier this year. The second person to fill the position is Todd Park, an entrepreneur well-known to folks in Boston for co-founding Athenahealth (somewhat ironically with Jonathan Bush, a cousin of President George W. Bush). Park, most recently CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was appointed to take over from Chopra this past March. For anyone who knows him, Todd Park is uber-high-energy (at one point, he literally hopped around on stage at this Xconomy event) and from what I can tell, he has gone into an even higher gear in his first six months in his new role.