Washington: US President Barack Obama's Indian-American infotech czar Vivek Kundra is headed to Harvard University this year for a fellowship programme and is expected to leave his post at the White House as Chief Information Officer in August.
Kundra, who has been CIO in the Obama administration for the past two and a half years, will serve a joint fellowship later this year at Harvard. He will split his time between the Shorenstein Centre on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
"We are excited to welcome Vivek Kundra to Harvard," director of the Shorenstein Centre Alex Jones said in a statement. "His extensive background in information technology, strategy and government operations will provide a valuable new lens through which to examine many of the important issues that the Centre is committed to exploring."
White House budget director Jacob Lew said in a blog post that Kundra is stepping down as CIO in the middle of August. Lew said the office was planning a "smooth transition" and would build on Kundra s work.
When Kundra joined the White House, he faced "an aging infrastructure with rising operating costs, too many major projects failing to deliver and increasing vulnerability to outside threats," Lew said.
The announcement comes as the White House is expected to spend roughly $80 billion this year on technology, funding that includes upgrading thousands of federal data programmes and worker e-mails to cloud-based computer networks. A successor to Kundra was not immediately named.
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