Nitin Pradhan

Mr. Nitin Pradhan was sworn in on July 6, 2009, as the Chief Information Officer for the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) as part of the Obama Administration. He is the Chief Advisor to Secretary Ray LaHood in all matters relating to information technology (IT). Pradhan provides IT vision, strategy, planning, policy, and oversight for DOT's $3 billion-plus IT portfolio.

Pradhan is a business strategist, technology expert, coalition builder, and change agent with more than 20 years experience, including 11 years at the CXO level in government, startups, nonprofits, and private industry. His expertise is targeting new opportunities utilizing technology as a solution; advising operational managers in launching and promoting knowledge-centric products and services; and defining fundamental organizational transformation integrating entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, as well as institutional and partner knowledge. His focus is on Enterprise 2.0-based communications; collaboration and community-building; and information assurance, security, and privacy. Pradhan is also a strong proponent of building public-private partnerships. He was recently named to Information Week's "Government CIO 50: Driving Change in the Public Sector" for bringing a business person's point of view to management of DOT's IT strategy, policy, and implementation.

Prior to joining DOT, Pradhan was an IT executive at Fairfax County Public Schools, the 12th largest school district in the country. The district's IT department has been ranked in CIO Magazine's top 100 IT organizations and Computerworld's 100 best places to work in the nation.

Before his time in Fairfax, Pradhan was the managing director of Virginia's Center for Innovation Technology, where his focus was on mentoring and growing technology startups and building research and innovation capabilities and capacity. He was also the co-founder and interim CEO of a wireless startup.

Pradhan's educational qualifications include a Bachelor of Science in engineering and a Master of Business Administration in marketing from India, as well as a Master of Science in accounting from the Kogod College of Business at American University in Washington, DC.