Still, at least it's somebody with proper qualifications. A techie, not a politician, so I'm hopeful either way.
Technolgy is rarely neutral, all techies are at least inadvertent politicans. What is the best vehicle for training techies to be civil servants -- lobbying jobs, venture capital, government contracting, academic residency, technical career in government service?
If there is evidence of bias, then we should attack them, but until there is, I would prefer someone with actual industry experience as opposed to a layman with less probability of bias.
Personally, I'm far less worried about this revolving door than others.
If you know of anyone qualified for the position but yet doesn't work for a company then I guess I am wrong but having work experience is kind of a requirement.
What's the fear, that their appointment will lead to a broken IT procurement system rife with conflicts of interest, perverted incentives, and no accountability? That's what we already have now.
I can't imagine a CTO not having worked at any of the big tech companies.
[citation needed], I think. They certainly lobby, but are they one of the biggest? I think that, in reality, a lot of tech companies were kind of lagging in that department until relatively recently.