Washington: Indian-origin technician Nand Mulchandani has been appointed as new CIA’s first ever Chief Technology Officer. CIA Director William J Burns shared news of appointing of Nand Mulchandani and posted in a blog.

According to the CIA statement Mulchandani has over 25 years of experience working in Silicon Valley as well as the Department of Defense (DoD). His appointment brings substantial private sector, startup, and government expertise to CIA. Sharing the development since my confirmation, I have prioritized focusing on technology and the new CTO position is a very important part of that effort. I am delighted Nand has joined our team and will bring his extensive experience to this crucial new role, said Burns.

The statement also said that his role as the CTO, Mulchandani will ensure that the Agency is leveraging cutting-edge innovations. Scanning the horizon for tomorrow’s innovations to further the CIA’s mission will also be on his agenda as the CTO.

He perused a degree in Computer Science and Math from Cornell, a Master of Science degree in Management from Stanford as well as a Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard. Before his new role at the CIA he served as the CTO and Acting Director of DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. He completed his school education at Delhi’s Bluebells School International between 1979-1987.

He has co-founded and served as the CEO of several successful startups such as Oblix (acquired by Oracle), Determina (acquired by VMWare), OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco), and ScaleXtreme (acquired by Citrix).