--- title: Obama Taps Facebook Director to Fix The Way The White House Uses Tech description: The Obama administration has hired Facebook's David Recordon as the White House's IT specialist canonical: https://time.com/3751651/obama-administration-facebook-director-white-house-technology/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T20:30:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:39.034Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Taps Facebook Director to Upgrade White House Technology og:description: Facebook's David Recordon is the White House's new IT specialist og:url: https://time.com/3751651/obama-administration-facebook-director-white-house-technology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Taps Facebook Director to Upgrade White House Technology twitter:description: Facebook's David Recordon is the White House's new IT specialist twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Obama Taps Facebook Director to Upgrade White House Technology > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9876e103-3e63-49ce-af4c-154232d43c9a&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Health Care Is Changing for 2015 [Watch (HLS stream): How Health Care Is Changing for 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/asBSrQOp.m3u8) (1:23)  _Published 2014-12-17. A focus on preventive care, wellness programs, and insurance updates are the main health care changes coming to employer-sponsored programs in 2015._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 19, 2015 8:30 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 19, 2015 8:30 PM UTC The Obama Administration has tapped another Silicon Valley techie to help the federal government navigate the digital world. Facebook Engineering Director [David Recordon](https://www.facebook.com/davidrecordon/about?section=education) is set to join the White House staff as the director of information technology, a new position created to upgrade technology at the White House. According to a White House [blog post](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/19/president-obama-names-david-recordon-director-white-house-information-technology), Recordon will unite overlapping programs and ensure the government has the most up-to-date, secure equipment. “His considerable private sector experience and ability to deploy the latest collaborative and communication technologies will be a great asset to our work on behalf of the American people,” President Obama said of Recordon in a [statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/19/president-obama-names-david-recordon-director-white-house-information-technology). [Yahoo News ](https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-facebooks-engineering-director-is-114060505054.html)first reported Recordon’s appointment on Thursday and Obama signed a presidential memorandum establishing the position later in the afternoon. Before joining Facebook in 2009, Recordon worked at several startups including blogging services creator Six Apart and Verisign. Recordon’s hiring is the latest move by the Obama administration to bring the federal government’s technology up to speed with the private sector. In 2014, President Obama launched the [U.S. Digital Service](https://www.whitehouse.gov/digital/united-states-digital-service), which brought some of the brightest minds of the tech world to Washington to improve the government’s use of technology. The Digital Service is led by Mikey Dickerson, a former Google executive who was tapped to fix the Healthcare.gov website following its abysmal launch. ## Transcript Employers are on sort of a long term trend of trying to shift more of the costs to their employees, to the people receiving the care. And it's an effort to sort of make health care more efficient. [ MUSIC ] They are sort of divvying up, or differentiating where you get your care. When it comes to something like Telemedicine. Which is where you sort of take a picture of something that's wrong with you and like, or you're curious about. Like a rash or something like that. And send that to your doctor, that's about half the price of going to your primary care doctor. So, it can be cheaper for them, and for you. It's all about being proactive with your health care and sort of knowing. What's going on with your, with your health and how best to, how best to treat whatever it is that needs to be treated. This means you need to sort of be in charge of your health care. You need to know where to go when something happens. It really depends on you. I mean like, if you do not take advantage of the wellness programs, your costs may go up. You can lower your bill and your overall health care spending, and be, if you're a little bit more correct. It, but at the same time, it requires a lot more attention. It requires a lot more work on your part. 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