The General Services Administration (GSA) has named Waldo Jaquith, a veteran technologist and former member of the Biden-Harris transition team, to be GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan’s senior advisor for state, local, tribal, and territorial government.
Jaquith has a wealth of tech experience at the state and Federal level, most recently serving as a Core Team Volunteer for the non-profit U.S. Digital Response from March 2020 until this month. He also served as the lead for Technology Strategy and Delivery for the Biden-Harris team.
“Jaquith comes to the agency with over a decade of experience in government and technology policy,” GSA said in its announcement of the appointment today. “An expert in budgeting and procurement for government software, he will coordinate GSA’s efforts to support state, local, tribal and territorial initiatives across the agency.”
Jaquith had been a fellow at Georgetown’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation since May 2020 “helping states collaboratively procure, develop, and maintain the software that we all depend on,” according to his LinkedIn. Prior to that, Jaquith was a procurement technologist at GSA’s 18F digital services agency from September 2016 until April 2020, serving as technical lead on the state and local practice.
Jaquith also worked in President Obama’s White House, first focusing on data without a title, then serving as a member of Obama’s Open Data Working Group. In 2013, Jaquith worked on then-Virginia Governor-Elect Terry McAuliffe’s transition team as a member of the Technology Committee.
Jaquith’s appointment was announced alongside that of Nathan Osburn, who will serve as GSA’s speechwriter.
