As the FDA’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Office of Digital Transformation (ODT), Mr. Desai sets and leads the agency’s Information Technology (IT) strategy, as well as the agency’s enterprise IT, data management, and cybersecurity. The ODT oversees the overall FDA IT spend of close to $1Bn and a staff of around 2,500 employees and contractors. In this capacity, he was recently named to the Forbes CIO Next List 2023 and was the only federal CIO to receive this honor. He was also selected as a WashingtonExec Top Government IT Leaders to watch in 2023, in additional to multiple agency and industry awards. Prior to being named CIO, Mr. Desai served as the FDA’s Chief Technology Officer, overseeing day-to-day technology operations as the leader of the Office of Information Management and Information Technology.
Mr. Desai is a seasoned, nationally recognized technology leader with over 35 years of experience in the IT field, and healthcare and life sciences industries. He has previous experience working for large pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and clinical research organizations.
Prior to joining the FDA in 2019, Mr. Desai held the CIO roles at Vyaire Medical, a respiratory medical device company formed from a divestiture from Becton Dickinson. He was CIO at Endochoice, a GI device and services provider, and Lake Region Medical, which was acquired by Greatbach to form Integer, a medical device, outsource manufacturer. His previous experience includes IT leadership roles with large CRO and pharmaceuticals, including Quintiles Transnational, where he served as executive director, Global IT Infrastructure. Prior to Quintiles, Mr. Desai held several leadership positions of increasing responsibility with GlaxoSmithKline. He started his career in IT as a software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation in Reading, U.K.
Mr. Desai holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (first class with honors) from Royal Holloway College, University of London