Nitin Pradhan served as the departmental
chief information officer (CIO) for the
US Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...
(DOT) as part of the
Obama administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...
from July 6, 2009, to August 31, 2012. After leaving US DOT, Pradhan established and led the nation's first Federal Technology Accelerator and Partner Consortium called Public Private Innovations
and later cofounded GOVonomy, an emerging products technology marketplace for the public sector as well as ScaleUP USA, a Digital Business Growth Accelerator.
Prior to joining DOT, Pradhan was an IT executive at
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the 12th largest school district in the United States. Earlier, Pradhan was the managing director of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT).
He was also the co-founder and former CEO of a wireless startup.
Early life and education
Born and brought up in
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
, India, Pradhan attended
Loyola High School (Pune). After high school, Pradhan attended the Faculty of Technology and Engineering,
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a public university on April 30, 1949 and was renamed after ...
(MSU), India, where he completed his bachelor's degree in engineering. He followed this degree with master's in marketing management from the
Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune, India. Pradhan came to
Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
, on a graduate fellowship from the Kogod School of Business at the
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...
(AU), to study for his second master's degree in accounting.
IT philosophy
Pradhan's IT philosophy focuses on people first, innovation, agility and driving business value. He believes that technology is first about people. Technology-based innovation is his second theme. He believes that
chief information officers (CIOs) have a dual role to play as
chief innovation officers. This aspect focuses on creating an innovation life cycle within organizations consisting of
ideation and crowd sourcing tools like DOT's IdeaHub,
a process for selection of best ideas, a cloud based agility platform for quick deployment of "apps" that drive business value, an Amazon.com-like IT business catalogue, with a one-stop shop for basic, premium, and fee-for-service IT offerings,
and an IT Vital Signs dashboard that measures progress.
Finally, he has promoted the concept of new IT—IT 2.0,
as he calls it, is based on immediately providing significant
public value and
business value
In management, business value is an informal term that includes all forms of Value (economics), value that determine the health and well-being of the firm in the long run. Business value expands concept of value of the firm beyond economic value (a ...
, and everything as a service (EAAS).
He is a strong proponent of using technology to deliver business results, for example; using emerging innovations like
intelligent transportation systems
An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application that aims to provide services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 's ...
and DOT's Connected Vehicles Program
designed to leverage
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),
driverless car
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no User input, human input. They are sometimes called robotaxi, robotaxis, though this te ...
s, and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)
wireless communication
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided med ...
in order to make driving safer by making cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles aware of the vehicles around them, even if the drivers aren't.
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Career
Pre Obama administration career
Pradhan also supported initiatives launched in the DC metro region in the mid-nineties; including Potomac Knowledge Way and Netpreneur,["Netpreneur Exchange – Internet Entrepreneurship in Greater Washington DC (archived site)"](_blank)
/ref> established by the Morino Institute, and the creation and expansion of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) a membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia, now the largest technology council in the nation, currently serving about 1,000 organizations. After CIT, Pradhan co-founded a wireless startup and was the CEO in early 2000.
Obama administration career
In 2009, Pradhan joined DOT as its CIO. Pradhan was the chief advisor to the secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood
Raymond H. LaHood ( ; born December 6, 1945) is an American politician who served as the 16th United States Secretary of Transportation from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the ...
, relating to information technology. In his role as the departmental CIO, Pradhan provided IT vision, strategy, planning and oversight for DOT's more than $3.0 billion IT portfolio, the sixth largest in the federal government. Pradhan's focus at DOT was on using technology to drive mission and business value, IT portfolio optimization, streamlining technology services, creating an IT business catalogue and online distribution (app store), holistic cyber security
Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...
and public private partnership
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...
s like the Digital Transportation Ecosystem (DTE). Some of the DOT technology initiatives included:
*Modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS)- Called NextGEN, which upgrades the system from older ground-based radars to satellite and GPS based systems.
*Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)- A Connected Vehicles Program that improves vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure safety via wireless communications and threat alerts.
*Modernizing Analog 911 Systems (E911)- Next generation digital VOIP 911 systems capable of receiving and sending internet protocol based voice, video and text.
Post Obama administration career
In September 2012, Pradhan established the nation's first Federal Technology Accelerator and Partner Consortium called Public Private Innovations (PPI). The goal of PPI is to drive public value through private growth by researching and analyzing government problems and matching them with business technology solutions; nurturing, adapting, and deploying technology platforms, products, and services for the federal marketplace and starting, building and growing government practices for new or existing IT contractors and technology suppliers.
In, March 2013, Pradhan cofounded GOVonomy.com, an emerging products technology marketplace focused on the public sector.
Professional recognition
For his work at the Department of Transportation, Pradhan and the DOT were awarded:
* InformationWeek
''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United State ...
's 500 IT Innovators Awards in 2010
* the "Premier 100" award by Computerworld
''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is a computer magazine published since 1967 aimed at information technology (IT) and Business computing, business technology professionals. Original a print magazine, ''Computerworld'' published its final pr ...
magazine in 2011
* the "Government "CIO 50"award from InformationWeek
''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United State ...
in 2011
* the "CIO 100" award by CIO magazine in 2012,
* and the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
"Open Government Leading Practices Awards" in 2012.
References
External links
archived Profile as DOT CIO
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pradhan, Nitin
United States Department of Transportation officials
Living people
Obama administration personnel
Technology evangelists
American politicians of Indian descent
Chief information officers
Kogod School of Business alumni
American people of Marathi descent
American technology chief executives
Year of birth missing (living people)