35 Facts About Vivek Kundra

Vivek Kundra was born on October 9,1974 and is a former American administrator who served as the first chief information officer of the United States from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama.

Vivek Kundra is currently the chief operating officer at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise customer experience management software based in NYC.

Vivek Kundra was previously a visiting Fellow at Harvard University.

Vivek Kundra 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.

Vivek Kundra learned Swahili as his first language, in addition to Hindi and English.

Vivek Kundra's family moved to the Washington, DC metropolitan area when he was eleven.

Vivek Kundra attended college at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a degree in psychology.

Vivek Kundra earned a master's degree in information technology, from the University of Maryland University College.

Vivek Kundra is currently the chief operating officer at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise customer experience management software based in NYC.

Previously, Vivek Kundra served as director of Infrastructure Technology for Arlington County, Virginia, starting September 11,2001.

Vivek Kundra worked on developing programs to spur open source and crowdsourced applications using publicly accessible Web services from the District of Columbia.

Vivek Kundra won recognition for the project management system he implemented for the District government.

Vivek Kundra moved the city's geographic information systems department to a middle school.

Vivek Kundra was officially named by President Obama on March 5,2009, to the post of Federal CIO.

Vivek Kundra made it a priority to focus on the following areas:.

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.

In January 2010, Vivek Kundra followed up the work on the IT Dashboard with TechStat accountability sessions.

Vivek Kundra launched the federal government strategy and the cloud computing portal Apps.

Vivek 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.

On December 9,2010, Vivek Kundra published the "25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management", which included Cloud First as one of its top priorities for achieving IT efficiency.

Vivek Kundra announced his decision to leave the federal government and join Harvard University within 7 months of this strategy, too short for any of cloud first initiatives to have demonstrated cost savings.

Vivek Kundra published a 25-point implementation plan to reform how the federal government manages information technology.

On March 13,2009, Vivek Kundra was placed on indefinite leave following an FBI raid on his former DC office and the arrest of two individuals in relation to a bribery investigation.

Vivek Kundra returned to duties after five days with no finding of wrongdoing on his part.

Vivek Kundra left Outcome in Nov 2017 soon after its major investors filed a lawsuit alleging improper practices against its founders for misleading advertisers and investors.

On May 16,2018 Vivek Kundra joined the private start-up Sprinklr as chief operating officer.

In May 2011, Vivek 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, "Vivek 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, Vivek 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.

Vivek 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.

Vivek Kundra was named Chief of the Year on December 21,2009, by InformationWeek for driving unprecedented change in federal IT.

Vivek Kundra was named by InfoWorld among the top 25 CTO's in the country.

Vivek Kundra was selected as a 2008 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium Award Finalist on 'Balancing Innovation and Cost Leadership'.

Vivek Kundra was recognized as the 2008 Government Sector IT Executive of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland.

Vivek Kundra was a recipient of the Federal 100 Award for significant contributions to the federal information technology community.