Ben Balter

Ben Balter is a gov 2.0 evangelist working to hack federal government from the inside out, an open-source developer passionate about the disruptive power of technology, and a J.D./M.B.A. candidate at the George Washington University.

Described by the US Chief Technology Officer as "the baddest of badass innovators," and by the White House director of Digital Strategy as "lightning in a bottle," Ben is currently a Presidential Innovation Fellow where he serves as entrepreneur in residence reimagining the role of technology in brokering the relationship between citizens and goernment. Before that he was a Fellow in the Office of the US Chief Information Officer within the Executive Office of the President where he was instrumental in drafting the President's Digital Strategy, on the SoftWare Automation and Technology (SWAT) Team, the White House's first and only agile development team, and as a New Media Fellow, in the Federal Communications Commission's Office of the Managing Director. His paper, Towards a More Agile Government was published in the Public Contract Law Journal, arguing that Federal IT Procurement should be more amenable to modern, agile development methods.