U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel, the federal official responsible for the $80 billion U.S. IT budget, will be joining us for a wide-ranging discussion at the GeekWire Summit on Oct. 2, the latest addition to our signature technology conference.
VanRoekel has led the charge to modernize the government’s technology practices since being appointed by President Obama in 2011. Before joining the government, he worked for Microsoft for 15 years, in positions including senior director in the Server and Tools Division, and strategy assistant to Bill Gates.
Most recently, VanRoekel announced the formation of a new federal team called the U.S. Digital Service, helping federal agencies learn from the way modern tech companies develop, roll out and run large tech projects. The initiative is led by a former Google engineer, Mikey Dickerson, part of VanRoekel’s plan to recruit private-sector talent onto the federal tech team.
“We like to think of it as the hottest new startup in the country,” VanRoekel said in a recent interview with GeekWire. “We were founded in 1776. There’s monuments erected to our founders. We’re a pretty cool startup.”
VanRoekel joins a GeekWire Summit lineup that includes author and drone entrepreneur Chris Anderson, journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann, Zulily chairman Mark Vadon, and top startup CEOs from the Seattle region and Silicon Valley. Check out the lineup of speakers on the GeekWire Summit site, and stay tuned for additional updates in the coming days.
The GeekWire Summit, presented by CenturyLink, runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 2 at the Westin Seattle. Attendees are also invited to a pre-event kickoff reception on the evening of Oct. 1, hosted at the downtown Seattle headquarters of Zillow.
Grab your tickets here or below, and see you on Oct. 2!
