Obama's CTO: Top 10 Contenders (and One Real Long Shot)

The Industry Standard —

Bill Clinton famously sent just two emails during his entire eight years as president. George W. Bush has preferred radio addresses to communicate with the American people. President-elect Barack Obama, on the other hand, has demonstrated a very strong grasp of digital technologies and their potential to connect constituents and even change the way the U.S. government does business. During the campaign, Obama announced his intention to appoint a national CTO to help improve the sprawling federal technology infrastructure and associated policies. Already there is a great deal of speculation about who might get the CTO job. In the following pages, we've profiled some of the people who have been floated as potential candidates. Despite the fact that the list is heavily weighted toward West Coast technology entrepreneurs, it gives some fascinating insights into the heroes of the software and Internet industries. A few of the names will undoubtedly surprise you, including one well-known long shot appearing at the end of the list.

Bill Gates

Microsoft's co-founder and former CEO has experience building and running a large technology organization, and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has demonstrated interests in using technology to improve healthcare and education. Nevertheless, Industry Standard readers have panned him as a pick for CTO.

Julius Genachowski

One of Obama's former colleagues from the Harvard Law Review, Genachowski advised two FCC chairmen during the Clinton administration. In recent years, he founded a startup incubator and has helped the president-elect formulate technology policy as a senator. Genachowski now advises the transition team on the CTO decision.

Eric Schmidt

Google's CEO has been referred to as a "third leg" to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but Schmidt's technology management credentials are hard to beat: He has a PhD in computer science and ran Novell before being hired by Paige and Brin. He's already advising Obama on technology issues, but has reportedly said he's not interested in the CTO position.

Lawrence Lessig

The Stanford Law School professor behind the Creative Commons movement would bring a deep understanding of technology law and policy to Washington. But Lessig's appointment would almost certainly be opposed by powerful legal and business interests—and their friends in Congress—for his stances on copyright reform and other issues. He has no experience running a large technology organization, which makes this rumor hard to believe.

Ed Felten

Felten is another academic whose areas of expertise include security, privacy, and open-source technologies. He may understand software and Internet-related policies, but he doesn't have experience running a large organization.

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