Aneesh Chopra: A Smart if Unlikely Choice for U.S. CTO

Here’s the top of the post wrote for BusinessWeek’s TechBeat blog:

On Saturday morning President Barack Obama announced a surprising choice for the new position of U.S. chief technology officer: Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra. “In this role, Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities – from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure,” said President Obama in his radio address.

I have never met Chopra in person but I did interview the 37-year-old Indian American at length recently for a story I co-wrote reporting that states such as Virginia are going to aggressively seek federal broadband stimulus funds. And I have to say that he impressed me as a thoughtful and smart public servant who knew what he was talking about and was making things happen. I know the tech cognoscenti was hoping that the President would tap a high-profile person from Silicon Valley. But Chopra may very well have the chops to get the job done.

Click here to read the rest of the post.