Former Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra is joining Salesforce.com as executive vice president of emerging markets, the company announced Monday morning.
“Salesforce.com is an industry disruptor, helping organizations use the transformative power of technology for change,” Kundra said. “I am excited to join the most innovative company in the world that is pioneering social, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for the enterprise.”
Kundra left the White House in August of 2011 after more than two years as the nation’s top technology official to accept an academic fellowship at Harvard University, conducting research at both the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the John Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
“Vivek Kundra is an amazing technology visionary who opened the eyes of millions to the transformational power of cloud computing,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “His disruptive leadership is just what the industry needs to accelerate the social enterprise.”
Prior to coming to the White House, Kundra served as the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia and as the assistant secretary of commerce and technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with one year as a vice president at Evincible Software, his only private sector job to date.
As Federal CIO, Kundra gained recognition for a number of initiatives to modernize how the government uses technology, namely the democratization of data, the IT dashboard, the “cloud first” policy and other management reforms.
