Obama's Indian American IT Czar leaves White House

Aneesh Chopra, one of the highest-ranking Indian Americans in the Barack Obama administration, is stepping down from his position as White House chief technology officer, administration officials announced on Friday.

Assistant to President Barack Obama, Chopra was the federal government's first chief technology officer, in which capacity he did some ground breaking work in taking the administration closer to the people.

In a statement, President Obama praised Chopra for his "groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century."

"Aneesh found countless ways to engage the American people using technology, from electronic health records for veterans, to expanding access to broadband for rural communities, to modernising government records," Obama said.

"His legacy of leadership and innovation will benefit Americans for years to come, and I thank him for his outstanding service," said the US President.

In his capacity as the CTO, Aneesh worked to advance Obama's technology agenda by fostering new ideas and encouraging government-wide coordination to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.

He was sworn in on May 22, 2009.

Prior to his appointment, he served as Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia from January 2006 until April 2009.

He previously served as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded healthcare think tank.

Chopra was named to Government Technology magazine's Top 25 in their Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers issue in 2008.

Aneesh Chopra received his B A from The Johns Hopkins University and his M P P from Harvard's Kennedy School.

Image: Aneesh Chopra