The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) within the US Department of Commerce is pleased to announce the appointment of G. Nagesh Rao as Chief Information Officer, and his selection to the career Senior Executive Service ranks. Mr. Rao, an Eisenhower Fellow and a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow, brings a wealth of experience to BIS having worked in the Public, Private, and NGO sectors over the last 20+ years, where he has had extensive experience working on IP-Portfolios, Global Strategies, Consumer Products, and Technology R&D, for a variety of leading companies in the private sector. He holds degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Law School, and University of Maryland-College Park.

Prior to coming to BIS, he worked at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and served on the COVID-19 Leadership Response Team, supporting the historic CARES Act implementation and overseeing build out and modernization of key digital products including PPP Lender Gateway, SBIR.Gov, and SBA.Gov. In the past 10 months while at BIS, Mr. Rao oversaw the first wave of technology modernization efforts which included cloud adoption, remote-work capabilities, and software as a service (SaaS) based solutions helping bring the bureau up to speed on a current technology stack standard, which in part earned him a FCW 2021 Fed 100 award.