President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. nominated Kurt DelBene to serve as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO), and the United States Senate confirmed his nomination by voice vote on December 16, 2021.
As VA’s senior information and technology executive, Mr. DelBene oversees the day-to-day activities of VA’s Digital Transformation, managing a budget of more than $4 billion. He leads a workforce of approximately 16,000 government and contract staff who enable health care and benefits delivery to more than nine million enrolled Veterans.
Before joining VA, Mr. DelBene was a longtime executive for Microsoft and served in numerous leadership roles with increasing responsibilities over more than 25 years. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Core Services Engineering and Operations and led the company’s cross-engineering and cross-business strategy, execution, and planning initiatives.
Mr. DelBene rejoined Microsoft in April 2015 after assisting former President Barack Obama with Healthcare.gov, the enrollment website for the Affordable Care Act. From December 2013 to July 2014, he served as senior advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, helping assess and implement the first Open Enrollment period, including troubleshooting problems and setting the project up for long-term success. During this time, he was also the liaison to White House and Health and Human Services senior leadership.
As president of the Microsoft Office Division from 2010 to 2013, Mr. DelBene was responsible for Microsoft’s global productivity strategy for information workers. He oversaw the engineering and marketing functions for a wide range of productivity products and services, including Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio.
Mr. DelBene also served as the senior vice president for the Microsoft Business Division, where he was responsible for the development of client and server software that delivers a holistic productivity experience to organizations and individuals, including authoring, collaboration, communications, information sharing, and project management.
Prior to joining Microsoft in 1992, Mr. DelBene was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, focusing on business strategy for technology companies. He also worked as a software developer and systems engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories, working in graphics and imaging software and network switching systems.
Mr. DelBene holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago, a Master of Science degree from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona. Mr. DelBene is married to U.S. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene who represents Washington’s 1st Congressional district. They have two children.
