White House Names HHS's Todd Park CTO

President Barack Obama will appoint HHS Chief Technology Officer Todd Park as the new federal CTO. Park, who oversaw technology for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, replaces Aneesh Chopra, the first to hold the post.

Confirmed by the White House in a blog post on Friday, the White House noted that Park served as a "hugely energetic force for positive change." at HHS. "He led the successful execution of an array of breakthrough initiatives, including the creation of HealthCare.gov, the first website to provide consumers with a comprehensive inventory of public and private health insurance plans available across the nation by ZIP code in a single, easy-to-use tool," said the blog.

Park has a reputation for being a visionary and entrepreneur in the health information technology arena. He served as a health care industry consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, and in 1997 founded electronic health records company Athenahealth. In 2008, he co-founded Castlight Health, which was named by the Wall Street Journal as the #1 venture-backed company in America for 2011. Park also served a volunteer senior advisor to Ashoka, a global incubator of social entrepreneurs, where he helped start a venture called Healthpoint Services, which brings affordable clean water, drugs, diagnostics and telehealth services to rural villages in India.

In his new role, Park will report on a dotted line to President Obama and will serve as the associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This means Park will oversee IT-related research and development spending and will serve in a key advisory capacity for the President Obama’s technology innovation agenda.