Dvorak: US CIO Kundra is a Phony?
August 12, 2009
When Obama tapped Vivek Kundra as CIO I was surprised since he had a checkered past:
- 1997 arrest and conviction for shoplifting (shirts from JC Penny’s)
- 2007 bribery scandal in his office (staffers were arrested by FBI)
Usually you have to be squeaky clean. I shrugged off the past and assumed he must be a techno genius. According to Dvorak, he is the farthest thing from a technologist. He compares him to and “18 year-old blogger who just got their first Macintosh”.
Dvorak points out that his resume is full of holes. His Masters degree is actually from a different school than on his White House bio. He claims a degree in biology, but there is no record of him receiving the degree. This are minor inconsistancies, but taken in context with his prior involvement in theft and bribery they should be given some weight. Even more shocking was his claim that he was CEO of Creostar and that somehow his executive management experience at the company prepared him for his role as CIO.
Dvorak quickly uncovered the fact that the company was incorporated by Vivek in 2004 (while he was working for a company called Exostar). He claimed revenues of $67,000 – not the billion dollar company Vivek has alluded to in past interviews. Dvorak is quick to point out that NONE of this matters – instead he suggests that even if it were all true Kundra wouldn’t be qualified:
“He hasn’t done anything to warrant this appointment. There are no great policy papers. There are no books. There is no invention. There is nothing but vague tech positions in city and state governments. How does this make him a “techno-whiz” as he was portrayed by the New York Times? It took him six years to get a simple undergrad degree in psychology! Was it just because he uses Facebook and likes Twitter?”
Kundra’s biggest achievement as CIO of the United States? Dvorak continues:
“So what have we got so far from this person? Well, for starters we are looking at the Recovery.gov website that will cost the taxpayers around $18 million. This news was released recently. What websites costs $18 million? And that’s with no warrantee. The incredibly popular Digg.com, one of the most advanced news gathering sites in the world was initially coded from scratch for between $1200-2500 according to one of its founders. Tools to develop fancy websites have improved drastically over the years and now it costs less for fancy sites, not more. So where is the $18 million going? I can assure you that people who pay attention bugged out their eyeballs at a website expense of $18 million.”
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[...] wrote a piece on my new ‘political blog’ titled, “Dvorak: US CIO Kundra is a Phoney?“ Basically a repost of Dvorak’s own post about our CIO found [...]
Pingback by Does the U.S. need a new CIO? | Texas Startup Blog — August 12, 2009 @ 5:29 pm
No he’s not a phony. And you would know that if you did some research. “Show me your birth certificate!” “Show me your degrees!” This kind of smears are VILE. They have no place in the United States. You should be ashamed of yourself for repeating this sort of unsubstantiated invective.
Comment by Jay Roman — August 12, 2009 @ 8:05 pm
Great stuff amuse, keep it up.
Comment by Eric Knipp — August 12, 2009 @ 8:08 pm
@jay Did you read Dvorak’s article? The issue isn’t that Kundra has a checkered past involving theft and bribery – it isn’t that he may have padded his resume. The real issue is that he doesn’t have any experience as a CIO. Why not pick someone who has actually held a CIO position? It took me six minutes to find six candidates with experience:
Michael Boyle (CIO Allstate): http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbboyle
Stephen Bozzo (CIO 1800flowers.com): http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-bozzo/4/19a/369
Rita Scherer (CIO AT&T): http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rita-scherer/0/bb2/32
Kregg Jodie (CIO at Mary Kay): http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kregg-jodie/0/88b/b8a
Paul Zummo (CIO at JP Morgan): http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-zummo/1/967/8a3
Jeff Mirich (CIO at Walt Disney): http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeff-mirich/0/311/901
I would be hard pressed to find someone with as little experience or skills than Kundra. What makes him qualified? Dvorak cites real facts – you simply suggest he is wrong. Give us a single reason he is qualified…
Comment by Alexander Muse — August 12, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
Better than Palin as Vice President…
Comment by Jake Good — August 13, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
@jake Really? This is the problem with America. We are so focused on the wrong stuff we can’t get anything done. We have the smartest IT folks in the world here in the US, but instead we hire an unqualified loser to run the most powerful CIO job in the nation. Your answer? Not, “lets work to replace him”. Not, “how did this happen?” Instead you suggest that somehow he isn’t as bad as a woman who ran, unsuccessfully, for vice president. What does she have to do with anything. She seems nice enough, but I don’t think she is the answer to our problem.
Comments that disagree with my post are great. Comments that agree with my post are great. Comments that make recommendations for change are great. Your comment only serves to screw up our country futher.
Comment by Alexander Muse — August 13, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
I’m only stating that his qualifications as CIO were better than Palin’s to be the Vice President of the country…
That’s called disagreeing with your post.
There are always going to be problems and nobody will be perfect for the job, but it’s not out of question to say “phew, close one”…
Our differing viewpoints won’t get us very far in this conversation… but I think we can both agree that it’s an improvement over previous administrations to put more focus higher up on technology.
Are you *really* coming to the Fort Worth Happy Hour on Monday? If so, we haven’t met yet, and it would be nice to say hi!
Comment by Jake Good — August 13, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
@jake in all likelihood I won’t be able to make it. I am spending ALL day at Six Flags with Ethan and his buddies (Ethan’s 8th birthday party). If I made it home I will be happy – not sure what it would take to drive to Fort Worth.
Perfect for the job? He isn’t qualified. Was Palin qualified to be President? I doubt it. I wouldn’t have wanted her as my leader. For that matter I wouldn’t want McCain as my leader. At the end of the day we only had two choices – both were terrible. The American people decided and we have Obama. But we don’t have to sit back and watch the carnage – we have an obligation to fix it. This Kundra guy is a fool – we need to out him and find a replacement. I named six. Do you have any suggestions?
Comment by Alexander Muse — August 13, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
Well put Muse. I don’t care for political lines much – I simply want competent folks calling the shots for the country.
Comment by Aaron Murray — August 14, 2009 @ 10:32 am