Kundra Not Concerned About Tech Execs Joining Obama Team

Vivek Kundra, national chief information officer, is not concerned that hiring top technology executives to serve in the Obama administration poses any ethical dilemmas.

The federal government has more than four million employees and 10,000 information technology systems, so the hiring of a handful of Google or Microsoft executives is barely a blip on the radar, Kundra said during Tuesday's Personal Democracy Forum.

"What I would say is that it's so exciting to actually be in an administration where I have access to some of the brightest minds when it comes to information technology," Kundra said in a response to a question. "Those people are coming to serve in the interest of their country and [are] driving towards making change that's fundamental and structural [and] extremely important in terms of where we're headed."

Those people include Andrew McLaughlin, a former Google policy executive who last month was selected as deputy chief technology officer. The appointment prompted protests from consumer groups who argued that hiring McLaughlin was a conflict of interest.

In April, meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, were named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group intended to help the president and vice president develop tech-related policies.

Kundra was not concerned that any of these executives would greatly influence technology policy.






"As far as the universe of people who are involved in [government] technology, you can slice and dice it so many ways because you're talking about tens of thousands of people who are working in information technology," he said.

The contributions of someone like McLaughlin, while important, are a "small percentage" of the overall work on federal IT projects, Kundra said.

Macon Philips, the White House director of new media, agreed.

"What we are trying to do is bring in a lot of people who can facilitate a process, really think about how we can make the government more transparent, and involve the public in our decision making," Philips said.

These executives "get that in their gut, and they care every day about ways that we can be more open," Philips said.

The doubters, meanwhile, can keep the government in check, Kundra said, by keeping tabs of IT projects via the newly announced IT Dashboard Web site.

"You'll be able to see everything online ... when it comes to procurements, contracts, and investments across the board," he said.