Todd Park has gone from steering his health care information technology company through a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) to occasionally sleeping on a mat in his office while working to repair the troubled new US government health care website.
Park, the chief technology officer for the White House and a top advisor to President Barack Obama, now finds himself among a handful of officials with targets on their backs, as Republicans try to root out who is responsible for this month's glitch-ridden rollout of Healthcare.gov.
Five years ago, Park was a private-sector tech success story having led his company to an initial public offering and starting a second one that was attracting millions of dollars in venture capital.
Also Read
The 40-year-old helped build the original Healthcare.gov website in 90 days in 2010 when he was chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services. The website then provided information about public and private insurance programmes, sorted by zipcode.
The White House trotted him out in July to talk up the new version, which is designed to be the main portal for millions of uninsured Americans to buy coverage through federal exchanges, an important part of Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
"I've taken a look at the early prototypes. They're incredibly impressive. And, the teams are using all kinds of advanced technology to make sure that that experience will only help insurance," Park said in a CNBC TV interview in July.
But the exchanges' debut on October 1 was anything but impressive, beset by technical glitches. Three weeks later, many people are still unable to sign on and enroll.
Park, the son of Korean immigrants who grew up in Ohio and earned an economics degree from Harvard, has kept a low profile despite being part of what the government described as a "tech surge" racing to fix the website's problems.
An administration source said, however, that Park's work has been so demanding that he has on occasion slept on a mat in his office.
His direct role in Healthcare.gov is unclear - as is the role of other White House and health department officials. The administration's lack of transparency has angered Republicans and some Democrats trying to get answers about who is responsible for the troubled rollout and who will repair it.
At the first oversight hearing called by Republicans on Thursday, US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan criticised the administration for being "allergic to transparency." And at least one powerful Republican has set his sights on Park.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa this week asked Park and White House Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel to hand over documents about their involvement in the website's woes.
"You surely maintained significant involvement in the oversight and development of Obamacare's critical information technology infrastructure," Issa said in a letter.
The White House declined to make Park available for an interview. In a statement, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said, "Todd's infectious passion for public service, tireless work ethic and technology expertise and experience make him a huge asset to our White House team."
Park now draws a salary of $165,300, significantly less than his $270,000 base salary at his Boston-based company, Athenahealth in 2008. The amount does not include the 5.4 per cent of the company, then worth $570 million, he owned at the time of its initial public offering in 2007. The company now has a market capitalisation of more than $5 billion.
