White House Brings On Microsoft Executive to Fix HealthCare.gov Kurt DelBene has been tapped to oversee the continued rollout of the Obamacare enrollment site.
By Catherine Clifford •
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Time to bring in the big guns. Or, in this case, the private sector.
President Obama today announced that former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene will take over the crisis mitigation job of getting the Obamacare website up and running.
DelBene will replace Jeffrey Zients who is leaving to become the director of the National Economic Council early in 2014. The White House brought Zients on in October, when it initially became clear that HealthCare.gov was insufficient.
DelBene, who is married to Rep. Susan DelBene (D-Wash.), had several executive-level jobs while at Microsoft, including president of the Microsoft Office division and senior vice president for the business division.
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"Kurt has proven expertise in heading large, complex technology teams and in product development. He will be a tremendous asset in our work," wrote Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services in a blog post today.
The appointment of DelBene won some praise among others in Washington. "The continued rollout of HealthCare.gov and our nation's health law requires strong, expert leadership from the top down," said Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) in a written statement. "Mr. DelBene's appointment is a good step toward achieving the goal of giving all consumers — regardless of where they live — a functioning marketplace to find and compare health plans."
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