Thiel protege Michael Kratsios named White House deputy CTO
The chief of staff to billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel is slated to be a new deputy chief technology officer in the Trump White House, according to news reports.
Michael Kratsios has worked for the better part of a decade for Thiel, an early backer of President Donald Trump’s campaign who remains one of his few supporters in the tech community.
Kratsios was chief of staff at Thiel Capital and before that chief financial officer of Clarium Capital Management, another Thiel venture capital company.
The post was last held by former Twitter general counsel Alexander Macgillivray under then-U.S. CTO and former Google executive Megan Smith, so the appointment marks a break from the convention of naming technology executives to such posts.
The story was first reported by Politico Pro Technology. Neither the White House nor Kratsios responded to a request for comment or confirmation.
“I have a passion for technology, politics, Greece, and travel,” reads Kratsios’ personal blog.
