CIA has announced the appointment of the agency’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Indian-American entrepreneur, Nand Mulchandani, was appointed for the role by CIA’s Director William J Burns.
The Central Intelligence Agency, the primary intelligence agency of the United States, has hired its first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). On April 29, the CIA revealed the news via a blog post, and its Director, William J Burns, named Nand Mulchandani as the agency’s first-ever CTO. Mulchandani offers “significant private sector, startup, and government” knowledge to the CIA, according to the CIA post, and has over 25 years of experience working in Silicon Valley and, most recently, the Department of Defense (DoD).
Mulchandani will report directly to CIA Director Burns and head the agency’s technological strategy. His hiring is a significant step forward for the American agency as it seeks to rethink its approach to confront escalating cybersecurity threats. The new CTO would also be in charge of overhauling the CIA’s attitude to technology and competition, particularly against China.
According to the CIA article, Mulchandani’s role as CTO will be to ensuring that the agency is exploiting “cutting-edge breakthroughs and scanning the horizon for tomorrow’s advances to promote the CIA’s mission.”
Mulchandani most recently worked as the CTO and Acting Director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Centre before joining the CIA. He has co-founded and led a number of successful firms, including Oblix (bought by Oracle), Determina (acquired by VMWare), OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco), and ScaleXtreme (acquired by Citrix).
He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Cornell, a master’s degree in management from Stanford, and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard.
CIA CTO Mulchandani, who is an Indian-American entrepreneur, said, “Its an honor for me to join the CIA in this role, and I am excited to work with the agency’s amazing team of technologists and domain experts, who already deliver world-class intelligence and capabilities, to help create a complete technology strategy that delivers thrilling capabilities in collaboration with industry and partners.”
