White House appoints new federal CTO

President Obama has named Todd Park as the federal government's new chief technology officer.

Park replaces Aneesh Chopra, who resigned for undisclosed reasons last month.

The new federal CTO comes from the Department of Health and Human Services where he served in the same capacity since August 2009. He will also temporarily hold the role of associate director of technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a post Chopra held concurrently.

Both jobs report to John Holdren, presidential science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The White House said Park has helped advance data, technology and innovation efforts at his former post, including the creation of HealthCare.gov, a public website which offers consumers a listing of public and private health insurance plans.

"Todd Park has demonstrated a remarkable talent for enlisting innovative technologies to modernize government, reduce waste and make government information more accessible to the public," Obama said in announcing his appointment.

The CTO position comes with a security focus. In remarks to the Senate before his 2009 confirmation, predecessor Chopra wrote: “If confirmed, I would emphasize a research program on ‘game-changing' ideas in cyber security, to find new ideas that might transform the nation's information infrastructure to be more secure and simpler to understand and use."

In his new position, Park will have "the important task of applying the newest technology and latest advances to make the federal government work better for the American people," said Holdren, who posted the appointment on his White House blog.