The Government of Canada has brought on former Google CFO and Inovia Capital partner Patrick Pichette to spearhead its newly formed digital transformation agency.
The news: The feds announced the launch of Digital Transformation Canada and Pichetteâs appointment as its CEO on Thursday. The organization will absorb Shared Services Canada, the Canadian Digital Service, and select functions from other departments. Its launch comes months after the feds unveiled their new AI strategy, which Pichette also provided input for.
From the source: âDigital Transformation Canada will ensure the federal government leads by example,â Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a news release. âBy modernizing public service delivery, reducing duplication, and supporting the growth of Canadian technology firms, we will strengthen our economy, improve outcomes for Canadians, and position Canada to lead in the digital age.â Carney added that Pichette will bring âworld-class expertise in digital transformationâ to the new agency.
The context: Pichette most recently spent more than eight years with MontrĂšal venture capital firm Inovia as a partner. Inovia confirmed to BetaKit that Pichette has resigned and stepped down from all of his board seats, and that any remaining interest he holds in its funds will sit in a blind trust. Before Inovia, Pichette served as chair of American social media platform X (then Twitter) until its acquisition by Elon Musk, spent seven years as CFO of US tech behemoth Google, and held executive roles at Canadian telecom giant Bell and American consulting firm McKinsey.
With Digital Transformation Canada, which the feds proposed last year, Pichette will focus on improving how the feds develop, buy, and use AI and other tech across government to reduce operating costs, improve service delivery, and buy more from Canadian companies. He will report to JoĂ«l Lightbound, the minister responsible for government transformation and procurement. The agency also plans to bring in private sector expertise on short-term assignments to bolster the public serviceâs technical capacity.
Final thought: Some tech leaders welcomed Pichetteâs appointment. Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Toronto large language model maker Cohereâwhich counts Inovia, via Pichette, among its investors and is already working with the fedsâargued in an X post that âunifying these orgs under a digital and AI mandate is exactly whatâs needed and Patrick is the perfect person to lead it.â
Feature image courtesy Inovia Capital.