White House Author

John Tolva is the City of Chicago’s first Chief Technology Officer, working for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Tolva has overseen Mayor Emanuel's implementation of policy for open, participatory government for all Chicagoans. Tolva recently launched ServiceTracker, an online 311 system that increases City accountability and makes it easy for Chicagoans to track requests. Tolva is currently managing a project to expand high-speed connectivity throughout Chicago. Before joining the City, Tolva worked at IBM for over 13 years where he led the City Forward project, a public analytics site for city data worldwide. Tolva received an MS in Information Design and Technology from Georgia Tech in 1998. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.