Former Census CTO Avi Bender Joins Commerce Dept as National Technical Information Service Head

Avi Bender, former chief technology officer for the U.S. Census Bureau, has been appointed to lead the Commerce Department‘s National Technical Information Service that distributes federal science and engineering information and data.

Commerce said Monday Bender has played a role in the Census Bureau’s modernization efforts and has previous executive leadership experience from other federal agencies and global commercial information technology sector companies.

In conjunction, NTIS also announced Monday it seeks proposals from companies, nonprofit and research organizations for a new joint venture opportunity to work on platforms and services designed to streamline federal data collection, interoperability and analysis.

“We are excited about this new direction for NTIS,” said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

“Finding innovative ways to utilize the federal government’s expansive data resources will provide great opportunities for public-private sector collaboration.”

Bender also has worked for the Internal Revenue Service, IBM, PwC, Verizon and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.