Nitin Pradhan
Nitin Pradhan, Departmental Chief Information Officer (CIO), Department of Transportation
Mr. Nitin Pradhan was sworn in on July 6th, 2009 as the Departmental Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the US Department of Transportation (DOT) as part of the Obama administration. He is the chief advisor to Secretary Ray LaHood in all matters relating to information technology. In this role of the Departmental CIO, Mr. Pradhan provides information technology vision, strategy, planning, policy and oversight for DOT’s $3.0+ billion IT portfolio.
Nitin is a business strategist, technology expert, coalition builder and change agent with over twenty years of experience including eleven years at CXO level in government, startups, non-profits and private industry. Nitin’s expertise is in targeting new opportunities utilizing technology as a solution; advising operational managers in launching and promoting knowledge centric products and services; and defining fundamental organizational transformation integrating entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology, as well as institutional and partner knowledge. His current focus is on Enterprise 2.0 based communications, collaboration and community building, and information assurance, security and privacy. Nitin is also a strong proponent of building public-private partnerships. Nitin was recently named to Information Week’s “Government CIO 50: Driving Change in the Public Sector” for bringing a business person’s point of view to management of the DOT’s IT strategy, policy and implementation. Prior to joining DOT, Nitin was an IT Executive at Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the 12th largest school district in USA. FCPS IT department has been ranked in the CIO Magazine’s top 100 IT organizations and Computer World’s 100 best places to work in the nation.
Prior to joining FCPS, Nitin was the Managing Director of Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), where his targeted focus was on mentoring and growing technology startups and building research and innovation capabilities and capacity. He has also been the co-founder and interim CEO of a wireless startup.
Mr. Pradhan’s educational qualifications include a BS degree in engineering and an MBA in marketing from India, as well as an MS in accounting from the Kogod College of Business at The American University, in Washington DC. He lives with his wife, son and daughter in Northern Virginia.