White House names Park as new CTO

U.S. President Barack Obama has appointed Todd Park as the new CTO for the U.S. government.

Park, who has served as CTO at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since August 2009, cofounded health IT company Athenahealth in 1997. Before Athenahealth, he was a management consultant, focusing on health care and technology, with Booz Allen & Hamilton, and volunteered as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on health IT and health reform policy.

He has also served as a senior health care advisor to Ashoka, a global incubator of social entrepreneurs, where he helped start a venture to bring affordable health services and clean water to rural India, according to his biography at HHS.gov. Park graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics.

At HHS, Park "was a hugely energetic force for positive change," John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in a blog post Friday.

Park led the development of HealthCare.gov, the first website to provide consumers with an inventory of public and private health insurance plans available across the nation, Holdren noted.

Obama created the position of CTO to focus on modernizing the federal government's technology and to focus on using technology tools to address national challenges. Park replaces Aneesh Chopra, who stepped down last month.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

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