G. Nagesh Rao currently serves as Chief Information Officer for the Bureau of Industry and Security within the US Department of Commerce. Most recently he was Director of Business Technology Solutions (BiTS) at the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of the Chief Information Officer, and prior to was Chief Technologist & Entrepreneur in Residence within SBA’s Office of Investment & Innovation.
Over the last 20+ years, Nagesh has worked for numerous organizations in the public, private, and not for profit sectors. During his time in the public-sector, he has co-developed federal-wide policy initiatives around spurring small business and technological innovation as well programmatic endeavors such as i6 Green, Patents for Humanity, USAID’s-SBAR Program, and SBA’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Furthermore he oversaw the revamp and modernization of SBA’s digital platforms including SBIR.gov and SBA.gov, as well led technology direction, as part of SBA’s COVID-19 leadership response team, with respect to the agency’s Virtual Command Center, PPP and EIDL endeavors via the CARES Act.
Nagesh’s musings (written and oratorical) have been featured and/or quoted via Wired, TechCrunch, WAMC-NPR, The Scientist, The National Academies, The Hill, FedTech Magazine, DC Inno, Technical.ly DC, NextGov, Daily Mirror (Sri Lankan version), Financial Times (Sri Lankan version), and The Courier-Journal.