Steven was appointed as the second United States Chief Information Officer by President Obama on August 5th, 2011. In this role, he is spearheading a transformation in the Federal Government’s use of technology by “Innovating with Less”. VanRoekel is driving savings and promoting innovation across the Federal IT portfolio by upgrading our nation’s cyber security capabilities, creating new open data policies, fostering delivery of mobile services to citizens, consolidating data centers, and promoting the Government’s transition to cloud computing. Wired Magazine recently named VanRoekel as one of the United States’ top 10 cloud influencers and thought leaders.
Prior to his position in the White House, Mr. VanRoekel served as the Executive Director of Citizen and Organizational Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and as Managing Director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At the FCC, Mr. VanRoekel oversaw all operational, technical, financial, and human resource aspects of the agency. He also led the FCC's efforts to introduce new technology and social media into the agency.
Before joining government in 2009, Mr. VanRoekel spent his entire private-sector career at Microsoft Corporation, including a stint as Speech and Strategy Assistant to Bill Gates, the corporation's co-founder, and most recently as Senior Director of the Windows Server division. He received a B.A. in Management of Information Systems from Iowa State University.
