Former CTO Todd Park New Gig

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But up front: Todd Park makes his new gig official – and floating names for a new CTO?

Todd Park, the now former White House chief technology officer, made it official over the weekend via Twitter: He is back in The Valley, as Silicon Valley calls it, with a new role of helping to recruit Valley thought (and people) to Washington.

Am back home in Silicon Valley, and very excited to continue to serve our country in a new role!

And the White House also made it official in a blog post: President Obama Asks Todd Park to Continue Administration Service in New Role after Returning to Silicon Valley:

Park’s focus will be recruiting more top tech talent like Mikey Dickerson into government and identifying innovative ways to improve the quality of government digital services, two central goals of the President’s Smarter IT Delivery agenda. He will also help ensure that the Administration has an on-the-ground sense of how technology is evolving and can craft policy and initiatives accordingly.

And the President offered his assessment of Park’s tenure:

President Obama said today, “From launching the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, to opening up troves of government data to the public, to helping spearhead the successful turnaround of HealthCare.gov, Todd has been, and will continue to be, a key member of my Administration. I thank Todd for his service as my Chief Technology Officer, and look forward to his continuing to help us deploy the best people and ideas from the tech community in service of the American people.”

(The DorobekINSIDER assessment.)

There is also discussion of Google’s Megan Smith as the next White House CTO.

Google’s Smith is top candidate for U.S. CTO [BloombergNews]: Megan Smith, a vice president at Google Inc.’s X lab, is a top candidate for the role of U.S. chief technology officer, Bloomberg reports. She would become the third person to hold the position. Google, the White House and Ms. Smith all declined comment.

Google executive Megan Smith is close to heading to the White House. Smith, 49, who was most recently a vice president at Google’s X lab, is a top candidate for the role of U.S. chief technology officer, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. Smith would become the third person to fill the CTO job, after Aneesh Chopra and Todd Park, who recently resigned and is returning home to California this month. Park will take on a new role for President Barack Obama’s administration as a technology adviser based in Silicon Valley, the White House said yesterday.

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