Just who Barack Obama will select for the much-discussed CTO position he is expected to create has been a highly debated topic in high-tech circles.
At first techies thought Eric Schmidt seemed the obvious candidate, that is until the Google Inc. (GOOG) exec put the kibosh on that notion.
But an article in Business Week late last week indicates that Vivek Kundra and Padmasree Warrior top the CTO candidate list on the eve of Obama’s inauguration.
Kundra is CTO for Washington, D.C. He previously served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia. And his private sector experience includes stints as VP of marketing for electronic signature and identity management outfit Evincible Software; and CEO of IT advisory group Creostar.
Warrior, meanwhile, is CTO of Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), and former CTO with Motorola. A Network World article titled “Deadwood from Motorola - Padmasree Warrior, fills vacant CTO role at Cisco last held by Charlie Giancarlo” on Warrior’s hire to Cisco in December of 2007 indicates Warrior was responsible, at least in part, for Motorola’s failure to innovate on the cell phone front.
According to Business Week, Obama is expected to announce the CTO “in a matter of days.”
