Vivek Kundra
Encyclopedia
Vivek Kundra served as the 1st Chief Information Officer of the United States
from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama
. He is currently a visiting Fellow
at Harvard University
.
He previously served in D.C. Mayor
Adrian Fenty
's cabinet as the District's Chief Technology Officer and in Virginia Governor
Tim Kaine
's cabinet as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology.
, India
on October 9, 1974. He moved to Tanzania
with his family at the age of one, when his father joined a group of professors and teachers to provide education to local residents. Kundra learned Swahili
as his first language, in addition to Hindi
and English. His family moved to the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area when he was eleven.
Kundra attended college at the University of Maryland, College Park
where he received a degree
in Psychology. He earned a masters degree
in Information Technology, from University of Maryland University College
. Additionally, he is a graduate of the University of Virginia
's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
starting September 11, 2001.
Governor Tim Kaine
appointed Kundra in January 2006 to the post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history.
Mayor Adrian Fenty
appointed him on March 27, 2007 to the cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. Kundra worked on developing programs to spur open source
and crowdsourced applications using publicly accessible Web services from the District of Columbia. Kundra established the D.C. Data Catalog, giving the public access to more than 300 data sets held by DC's agencies. He later used that data as the source material for an initiative called Apps for Democracy. The contest yielded 47 web, iPhone and Facebook applications from residents in 30 days. Mayor Fenty stated that the program cost the District "50 thousand dollars total and we estimate that we will save the district millions of dollars in program development costs". This cost-benefit was claimed by the DC government as savings in internal operational and contractual costs. "Taking a page" from Kundra this initiative is now being mirrored by New York City
's mayor Michael Bloomberg
in launching a "BigApps" contest housed at NYC BigApps as well as New York City's DataMine. The city of San Francisco has also recently launched a data portal similar to that of DC.
Kundra won recognition for the project management system he implemented for the District government. The system imagined projects as publicly traded companies, project schedules as quarterly reports, and user satisfaction as stock prices. Buying or selling a stock corresponded to adding resources to a project or taking them away. The goal of management was to optimize the project portfolio for return on investment. The system effectively replaced subjective judgments about projects with objective, data driven analytics.
Kundra's efforts to use cloud-based
Web applications in the District government have also been considered innovative within government. Following the DC example driven by Kundra, the city of Los Angeles is now taking steps to adopt the cloud computing model for its IT needs. A DC spokeswoman said that the District of Columbia paid $479,560 for the Enterprise Google Apps
license, which is $3.5 million less than what it had planned to spend on an alternative plan. Since its deployment in July 2008 Google Apps is available to 38,000 DC city employees, 4,000 of whom are actively using it. As of August 20, 2009, DC has not yet made a decision to replace Microsoft Exchange
with Gmail
, having a policy "to put into Google Apps only information that could be transmitted via e-mail" and "not placing sensitive data into Google Apps."
Kundra also moved the city's geographic information systems department to a middle school.
's transition team. Kundra was officially named by President Obama on March 5, 2009 to the post of Federal CIO, a position that was previously filled by Karen S. Evans
.
The Federal Chief Information Officer is responsible for directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments as well as for oversight of federal technology spending. The E-Government Act of 2002
established the role of a Federal Chief Information Officer
within the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and maintains information security and privacy across the federal government. According to President Obama, as Chief Information Officer, Kundra "will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible." In order to further President Obama's overall technology agenda, Mr. Kundra, Jeffrey Zients
, the Chief Performance Officer, and Aneesh Chopra
, the Chief Technology Officer, will all work closely together. Both Kundra and Chopra previously worked in Governor Tim Kaine's administration.
Kundra has made it a priority to focus on the following areas: (1) ensuring openness and transparency, (2) lowering the cost of government, (3) cyber-security, (4) participatory democracy, and (5) innovation. One of Mr. Kundra's first projects was the launch of Data.gov
, a site for providing access to raw government data. Another project launched by Mr. Kundra in June 2009 was the Federal IT Dashboard, which gives an assessment (in terms of Cost, Schedule and CIO ranking) of many large government IT projects.
On March 12, 2009, an official at Kundra's previous DC technology office was charged with fraud and other misconduct. While Kundra was not the subject of the investigation, he went on leave from his CIO position for a five-day period quickly returning to work after being cleared.
platform on May 21, 2009 with the goal of providing public access to raw datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government in order to enable public participation and private sector innovation. Data.gov draws conceptual parallels from the DC Data Catalog launched by Kundra when he was CTO of Washington, D.C., where he published vast amounts of datasets for public use. Immediately after the Data.gov launch, the Apps for America contest by the Sunlight Foundation
challenged the American people to develop innovative solutions using Data.gov. San Francisco, the City of New York, the State of California, the State of Utah, the State of Michigan, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have launched public access websites modeled after Data.gov. Internationally, some cities in Canada
and the UK are following suit.
portal Apps.gov at NASA’s Ames Research Center
, Moffett Field, Calif., on Sept. 15, 2009. Apps.gov is a new service provided by the GSA where federal agencies can subscribe to IT services. Kundra saw the cloud as an alternative to hardware investments, as means to reduce IT costs, and to shift focus of federal IT from infrastructure management to strategic projects. This initiative aims to use commercially derived technologies in order to promote software tools, vast data storage and data sharing, and to foster collaboration across all federal agencies. Howard Schmidt
, White House cybersecurity coordinator, will work closely with the Federal CIO and CTO with respect to cloud initiatives and has the responsibility of orchestrating all cybersecurity activities across the government.
in August 2011 to accept an academic fellowship at Harvard University
, conducting research at both the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
In March 2011, Kundra was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for his professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.
Kundra was awarded the 2010 National Cyber Security Leadership Award by the SANS Institute for uncovering more than $300 million each year in wasted federal spending on ineffective certification and accreditation reporting and demonstrating an alternative approach called "continuous monitoring" that provides more effective security for federal systems at lower costs.
Kundra was named Chief of the Year on December 21, 2009, by InformationWeek
for driving unprecedented change in federal IT.
Kundra was named by InfoWorld
among the top 25 CTO's in the country.
He was also selected as a 2008 MIT Sloan
CIO Symposium Award Finalist on ‘Balancing Innovation and Cost Leadership’. Both organizations cited the "stock market" approach to IT portfolio management that Kundra implemented for the District of Columbia. The system measured project performance and allocated IT investments similar to the way the public companies trade on the stock market.
Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s
Ash Institute also awarded the Innovations in American Government Award (2009) to “District of Columbia’s Data Feeds: Democratization of Government Data”. The project spearheaded by Kundra, Mayor Fenty
, and CPO David Gragan was cited for “increase in civic participation, government accountability, and transparency in D.C. government practices” through sites like the Digital Public Square and the DC Data Catolog.
Kundra was recognized as the 2008 Government Sector IT Executive of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland
. The organization cited Kundra's efforts to increase public access to government information and services through live data feeds and data sets. Kundra was also a recipient of the Federal 100 Award for significant contributions to the federal information technology community.
Chief Information Officer of the United States
The Federal Chief Information Officer is the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, which in turn is part of the Office of Management and Budget. The position is appointed by the President and does not require senate confirmation. It was created by the E-Government Act of 2002.Vivek...
from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. He is currently a visiting Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
He previously served in D.C. Mayor
Mayor of the District of Columbia
The Mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of Washington, D.C. The Mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Council of the District of Columbia...
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
's cabinet as the District's Chief Technology Officer and in Virginia Governor
Governor of Virginia
The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....
Tim Kaine
Tim Kaine
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011...
's cabinet as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology.
Early life and education
Kundra was born in New DelhiNew Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on October 9, 1974. He moved to Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
with his family at the age of one, when his father joined a group of professors and teachers to provide education to local residents. Kundra learned Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
as his first language, in addition to Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and English. His family moved to the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
metropolitan area when he was eleven.
Kundra attended college at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
where he received a degree
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in Psychology. He earned a masters degree
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
in Information Technology, from University of Maryland University College
University of Maryland University College
The University of Maryland University College is located in the unincorporated community of Adelphi in Prince George's County, Maryland in the United States. Serving over 90,000 students worldwide, UMUC is the largest 4-year public university in Maryland and one of the largest distance learning...
. Additionally, he is a graduate of the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
Career
Kundra served as Director of Infrastructure Technology for Arlington County, VirginiaArlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
starting September 11, 2001.
Governor Tim Kaine
Tim Kaine
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011...
appointed Kundra in January 2006 to the post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history.
Mayor Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
appointed him on March 27, 2007 to the cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. Kundra worked on developing programs to spur open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and crowdsourced applications using publicly accessible Web services from the District of Columbia. Kundra established the D.C. Data Catalog, giving the public access to more than 300 data sets held by DC's agencies. He later used that data as the source material for an initiative called Apps for Democracy. The contest yielded 47 web, iPhone and Facebook applications from residents in 30 days. Mayor Fenty stated that the program cost the District "50 thousand dollars total and we estimate that we will save the district millions of dollars in program development costs". This cost-benefit was claimed by the DC government as savings in internal operational and contractual costs. "Taking a page" from Kundra this initiative is now being mirrored by New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
in launching a "BigApps" contest housed at NYC BigApps as well as New York City's DataMine. The city of San Francisco has also recently launched a data portal similar to that of DC.
Kundra won recognition for the project management system he implemented for the District government. The system imagined projects as publicly traded companies, project schedules as quarterly reports, and user satisfaction as stock prices. Buying or selling a stock corresponded to adding resources to a project or taking them away. The goal of management was to optimize the project portfolio for return on investment. The system effectively replaced subjective judgments about projects with objective, data driven analytics.
Kundra's efforts to use cloud-based
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
Web applications in the District government have also been considered innovative within government. Following the DC example driven by Kundra, the city of Los Angeles is now taking steps to adopt the cloud computing model for its IT needs. A DC spokeswoman said that the District of Columbia paid $479,560 for the Enterprise Google Apps
Google Apps
Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and...
license, which is $3.5 million less than what it had planned to spend on an alternative plan. Since its deployment in July 2008 Google Apps is available to 38,000 DC city employees, 4,000 of whom are actively using it. As of August 20, 2009, DC has not yet made a decision to replace Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
with Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
, having a policy "to put into Google Apps only information that could be transmitted via e-mail" and "not placing sensitive data into Google Apps."
Kundra also moved the city's geographic information systems department to a middle school.
Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Prior to his appointment as CIO, Mr. Kundra served as technology adviser on President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's transition team. Kundra was officially named by President Obama on March 5, 2009 to the post of Federal CIO, a position that was previously filled by Karen S. Evans
Karen S. Evans
Karen S. Evans was the Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology at the Office of Management and Budget. Evans retired after a long career in the government form this office on January 20, 2009...
.
The Federal Chief Information Officer is responsible for directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments as well as for oversight of federal technology spending. The E-Government Act of 2002
E-Government Act of 2002
The E-Government Act of 2002 , is a United States statute enacted on December 17, 2002, with an effective date for most provisions of April 17, 2003...
established the role of a Federal Chief Information Officer
Chief Information Officer of the United States
The Federal Chief Information Officer is the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, which in turn is part of the Office of Management and Budget. The position is appointed by the President and does not require senate confirmation. It was created by the E-Government Act of 2002.Vivek...
within the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and maintains information security and privacy across the federal government. According to President Obama, as Chief Information Officer, Kundra "will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible." In order to further President Obama's overall technology agenda, Mr. Kundra, Jeffrey Zients
Jeffrey Zients
Jeffrey "Jeff" D. Zients is an American CEO, management consultant and entrepreneur. On July 30, 2010, he was named acting director of the Office of Management & Budget. President Obama appointed him to the new position of United States Chief Performance Officer...
, the Chief Performance Officer, and Aneesh Chopra
Aneesh Chopra
Aneesh Paul Chopra is the first Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States .Chopra previously served as Virginia’s fourth Secretary of Technology. Prior to his government service, Chopra was Managing Director for the Advisory Board Company, a health care think tank for hospitals and...
, the Chief Technology Officer, will all work closely together. Both Kundra and Chopra previously worked in Governor Tim Kaine's administration.
Kundra has made it a priority to focus on the following areas: (1) ensuring openness and transparency, (2) lowering the cost of government, (3) cyber-security, (4) participatory democracy, and (5) innovation. One of Mr. Kundra's first projects was the launch of Data.gov
Data.gov
Data.gov is a U.S. government website launched in late May 2009 by the then Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, Vivek Kundra....
, a site for providing access to raw government data. Another project launched by Mr. Kundra in June 2009 was the Federal IT Dashboard, which gives an assessment (in terms of Cost, Schedule and CIO ranking) of many large government IT projects.
On March 12, 2009, an official at Kundra's previous DC technology office was charged with fraud and other misconduct. While Kundra was not the subject of the investigation, he went on leave from his CIO position for a five-day period quickly returning to work after being cleared.
Democratizing data
Kundra launched the Data.govData.gov
Data.gov is a U.S. government website launched in late May 2009 by the then Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, Vivek Kundra....
platform on May 21, 2009 with the goal of providing public access to raw datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government in order to enable public participation and private sector innovation. Data.gov draws conceptual parallels from the DC Data Catalog launched by Kundra when he was CTO of Washington, D.C., where he published vast amounts of datasets for public use. Immediately after the Data.gov launch, the Apps for America contest by the Sunlight Foundation
Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation is a 501 educational organization founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States government....
challenged the American people to develop innovative solutions using Data.gov. San Francisco, the City of New York, the State of California, the State of Utah, the State of Michigan, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have launched public access websites modeled after Data.gov. Internationally, some cities in Canada
Open Government in Canada
Open Data in Canada describes the capacity for the Canadian Federal Government and other levels of government in Canada to provide online access to internal data in a standards-compliant Web 2.0 way....
and the UK are following suit.
IT dashboard
On June 30, 2009 at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, Vivek Kundra, unveiled the IT Dashboard that tracks over $76 billion in federal IT spending. The IT Dashboard is part of USASpending.gov to track all government spending. The IT Dashboard is designed to provide CIOs of individual government agencies, the public and agency leaders unprecedented visibility into the operations and performance of Federal IT investments, and the ability to provide and receive direct feedback to those directly accountable. In January 2010, Kundra followed up the work on the IT Dashboard with TechStat accountability sessions. These sessions are designed to turnaround, halt or terminate at-risk and failing IT projects in the federal government. It allows agency CIOs, CFOs, and other key stakeholders to find solutions for IT projects that are over budget, behind schedule, or under-performing.Cloud computing
Kundra launched the Federal Government strategy and the cloud computingCloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
portal Apps.gov at NASA’s Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...
, Moffett Field, Calif., on Sept. 15, 2009. Apps.gov is a new service provided by the GSA where federal agencies can subscribe to IT services. Kundra saw the cloud as an alternative to hardware investments, as means to reduce IT costs, and to shift focus of federal IT from infrastructure management to strategic projects. This initiative aims to use commercially derived technologies in order to promote software tools, vast data storage and data sharing, and to foster collaboration across all federal agencies. Howard Schmidt
Howard Schmidt
Howard A. Schmidt is the Cyber-Security Coordinator of the Obama Administration, operating in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.One of Schmidt's leading policy objectives is the development of "National Strategy for...
, White House cybersecurity coordinator, will work closely with the Federal CIO and CTO with respect to cloud initiatives and has the responsibility of orchestrating all cybersecurity activities across the government.
Management reforms
Mr. Kundra published a 25-point implementation plan to reform how the Federal government manages information technology. The execution plan follows his decision to reevaluate some of the government's most troubled IT projects. Of 38 projects reviewed, four have been canceled, 11 have been rescoped and 12 have cut the time for delivery of functionality down by more than half, from two to three years down to an average of 8 months, achieving a total of $3 billion in lifecycle budget reductions.Post-Obama administration career
Kundra left his post as Chief Information OfficerChief Information Officer of the United States
The Federal Chief Information Officer is the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, which in turn is part of the Office of Management and Budget. The position is appointed by the President and does not require senate confirmation. It was created by the E-Government Act of 2002.Vivek...
in August 2011 to accept an academic fellowship at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, conducting research at both the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of...
and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
Professional recognition
In May 2011, Kundra was selected by EMC Corporation for their Data Hero Visionary Award for his pioneering work under the Obama Administration to reform how the Federal government manages and uses information technology. EMC states that, "Kundra has led the nation to seek innovative solutions to lower the cost of government operations, while exploring ways to fundamentally change the way the public sector and the public interact."In March 2011, Kundra was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for his professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.
Kundra was awarded the 2010 National Cyber Security Leadership Award by the SANS Institute for uncovering more than $300 million each year in wasted federal spending on ineffective certification and accreditation reporting and demonstrating an alternative approach called "continuous monitoring" that provides more effective security for federal systems at lower costs.
Kundra was named Chief of the Year on December 21, 2009, by InformationWeek
InformationWeek
InformationWeek is a weekly print magazine, an online site with corresponding face-to-face and virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California and was first published in 1979 by CMP Media, later called CMP Technology. On February 29, 2008, CMP Technology was...
for driving unprecedented change in federal IT.
Kundra was named by InfoWorld
InfoWorld
InfoWorld is an information technology online media and events business operating under the umbrella of InfoWorld Media Group, a division of IDG...
among the top 25 CTO's in the country.
He was also selected as a 2008 MIT Sloan
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
CIO Symposium Award Finalist on ‘Balancing Innovation and Cost Leadership’. Both organizations cited the "stock market" approach to IT portfolio management that Kundra implemented for the District of Columbia. The system measured project performance and allocated IT investments similar to the way the public companies trade on the stock market.
Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
Ash Institute also awarded the Innovations in American Government Award (2009) to “District of Columbia’s Data Feeds: Democratization of Government Data”. The project spearheaded by Kundra, Mayor Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
, and CPO David Gragan was cited for “increase in civic participation, government accountability, and transparency in D.C. government practices” through sites like the Digital Public Square and the DC Data Catolog.
Kundra was recognized as the 2008 Government Sector IT Executive of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland
Tech Council of Maryland
The Tech Council of Maryland is a technology trade association for companies with operations in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia. TCM has two divisions: The Tech Alliance, which serves the advanced technology industry, and MdBio, which serves the Maryland biotech industry.-Member...
. The organization cited Kundra's efforts to increase public access to government information and services through live data feeds and data sets. Kundra was also a recipient of the Federal 100 Award for significant contributions to the federal information technology community.
External links
- Federal CIO Council
- 'Democratizing Data and Putting it in the Public Domain', November 20, 2008
- Live On Video: Federal CIO Vivek Kundra In His Own Words, InformationWeek Wolfe's Den blog - March 6, 2009
- Kundra on Democratizing Data Government Technology MagazineGovernment Technology MagazineGovernment Technology magazine is the flagship periodical of Folsom, California-based publishing company e.Republic Incorporated. The magazine aims to deliver editorial content to information technology professionals working in the public-sector, primarily in state and local government.Established...
, March 2009