Choosing a C-Something-O

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

We don’t have a CTO yet, but we do now have a national CIO, a 34-year-old by the name of Vivek Kundra. Early reports suggest that his job portfolio will include a lot of things one would expect a CTO to do, which makes sense since Kundra’s previous job was Washington DC’s CTO. And by all accounts, he was exceptional it.

Maybe a CTO will be next. He or she will likely be Kundra’s close partner. Together, they’ll be doing some of the most cutting edge stuff in the administration, like using technology to democratize government information, encourage citizen engagement, and increase transparency across the executive branch.

Oh, and by the way, my favorite part of this WaPo profile of Kundra?

Kundra was born in India and moved to Tanzania at a young age. His family came to Gaithersburg when he was 11. His first language is Swahili.

One of his earliest memories after moving to Maryland is seeing a TV commercial for dog food. “I was shocked,” he said. “I was used to seeing people starve in Africa. It was mind-boggling to me that people could afford to feed their dogs!”

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate