Can you imagine a top information technology executive in the U.S. with a name like Jack Callahan or Margaret Weinberger.

No, sir. No. The name’s got to be a Ramasamy or Padmasree. OK, at least a Chopra or Kundra.

Top IT Dogs
Any surprise then that the top IT dogs in President Obama’s administration are two desis – Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra.

CTO Aneesh Chopra
In his Friday weekly address to the nation, Obama named Aneesh Paul Chopra as his administration’s Chief Technology Officer.

As CTO, Chopra’s job is to promote technological innovation to help the U.S. meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.

Chopra, who was previously Virginia’s Secretary of Technology has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University.

CIO Vivek Kundra
Earlier (in early March), Obama named Vivek Kundra the Federal Chief Information Officer.

Kundra’s responsibility as CIO is to direct policy and strategic planning of federal IT investments and oversight of federal technology spending. 

The White House explained that the Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and information security and privacy across the federal government. 

Kundra was previously CTO of the District of Columbia and holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland.

Kundra and Chopra are supposed to work closely with each other to advance the President’s technology agenda.