President Biden on Tuesday appointed Clare Martorana to be the federal chief information officer (CIO) and serve as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Martorana has been serving as CIO of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) since February 2019.
The Federal CIO oversees and coordinates information technology spending, investments and policy at the federal level. The CIO also works with department and agency CIOs across the executive branch to establish standards, adopt and share IT management practices, and manage risk and ensure privacy and security.
Suzette Kent, the most recent permanent Federal CIO, resigned last July.
Before joining OPM, Martorana began her government service with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) beginning in October 216. The USDS hires technologists and deploys small multidisciplinary teams to work with departments and agencies to support modernization efforts. Martorana worked on digital modernization at the Department of Veterans Affairs and was a project lead of a team that helped veterans “discover, apply for, track and manage the benefits they have earned,” she says on her LinkedIn page.
Martorana has also spent time as an adviser for startup and early state health and wellness companies, was president of the consumer business unit of the digital health and wellness company Everyday Health, Inc., and was an executive and editor-at-large with the digital health and wellness information company WebMD.
“Throughout her career, Clare Martorana worked to improve and simplify the digital experiences people have when interacting with businesses and government,” the White House said in a statement. At OPM, “she stabilized and secured agency operations to deliver better digital-first services for the federal workforce,” it said.
OMB’s Office of Electronic Government provides direction for citizens and businesses to work with the federal government through the internet.