Former Bill Gates' Aide New Federal CIO

Steven VanRoekel, a onetime speech and strategy assistant to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is the new federal chief information officer, replacing Vivek Kundra. President Obama announced Thursday the appointment of VanRoekel, who joined the administration in 2009 as managing director of the Federal Communications Commission. The appointment does not require Senate confirmation.

In a press briefing Thursday, VanRoekel said he has no plans to make any major changes from the agenda Kundra put in place. "What I really saw at the Federal Communications Commission is that this notion of re-imagining government in the context of the pace of innovation of private industry can be done in government," VanRoekel said. "And, it can be done in such a way that can save money, save resources and everything else. We were in lock step with Vivek's team here. ... Now I'm really excited about the ability to take that work and scale it to the broader notion of government and take the momentum and impact things broadly."