U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Greek-American Michael Kratsios as Chief Technology Officer of the United States, according to a Bloomberg report.
Kratsios, a former venture capitalist, served as Deputy CTO until now. The CTO post had been vacant for the past two years.
The position of CTO is non-partisan and was created during the Barack Obama administration. According to a White House press release, the CTO’s job is to “help the President and the Administration harness the power of technology, data, and innovation to advance the future of our Nation.”
Kratsios, was born Michael John Kotsakas Kratsios on November 7, 1986, in a Greek American household in Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated from Princeton University in 2008 with a degree in political science and a certificate in Hellenic studies. He was a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
After graduation, he worked for Barclay’s Capital and Lyford Group International, and later served as the Chief Financial Officer of Clarium Capital Management. He then became a Principal at Thiel Capital and served as Chief of Staff to entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
At the White House, Kratsios has advocated for the promotion of emerging technologies in the United States. His goal, as he describes it, is “to take the president’s message and map it to a tech agenda,” according to Bloomberg.
Under his leadership, the White House hosted the American Leadership in Emerging Technology Summit during the Administration’s Technology Week in June 2017. He was also at the helm in the White House effort to integrate drones into the national airspace system, that called for the establishment of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program.
Source: usa.greekreporter.com