Vivek Kundra joins Salesforce.com

Former Chief Information Officer of US federal government Vivek Kundra has joined Salesforce.com as executive vice president for emerging markets, according to a release from the company.

Kundra stepped down from his White House post in August 2011, after serving as the first Federal CIO for two and half years. During his tenure, Kundra managed more than US$80 billion in technology investments. He was also a key advocate of cloud computing in public sector, and the author of US Cloud-First policy.

In December 2010, Kundra launched a 25-point plan for restructuring federal information technology, created an official federal title of ‘IT Programme Manager’, released a federal cloud computing strategy and had agencies host accountability sessions.

Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the department which owns the federal CIO portfolio, said at Kundra’s departure that he “brought with him the promise of good ideas and a hard-charging style focused on getting this done—necessary qualities to tackle the difficult issues facing federal IT”.

Lew added that Kundra had “cracked down on wasteful IT spending, saved US$3 billion in taxpayer dollars; moved the government to the cloud; strengthened the cybersecurity posture of the nation while making it more open, transparent, and participatory.”

In his new role, Kundra will drive social, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for markets outside US and Canada.

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