G. Nagesh Rao currently serves as Chief Information Officer (Acting) 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 Chief Technologist & Entrepreneur in Residence within SBA's Office of Investment & Innovation.
Over the last 20 years, Nagesh has worked for numerous organizaitons in the public, private, and not for profit sectors. During his time in the public-sector, he co-developed programmatic endeavors such as i6 Green, Patents for Humanity, US AID's-SBAR Program, and SBA's Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Furthermore he oversaw the creation and issuance of 5 major interagency policy committee reports, regarding the SBIR/STTR programs, for US Congress on behalf of SBA nad White HOuse-OSTP; as well as he led the revamp and modernization of SBA's digital platforms including SBIR.gov and SBA.gov. Additionally Nagesh oversaw 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 as part of the historic CARES Act efforts.
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 Lanken version), Financial Times (Sri Lankan version), and The Courier-Journal.
Nagesh is a 2004 Mirzayan Fellow of The National Academies and a 2016 USA Eisenhower Fellow. Among many accolades that Nagesh has received over the years, prominent ones include the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman & Hind Rattan awards from the NRI Welfare Society, ACT-IAC Collaboration Award, BT 150, DC Inno 50 on Fire, 2019 Gears of Government, and the RPI Alumni Key Award.