Michael Kratsios

Michael John Kotsakas Kratsios (born November 7, 1986) is an American business executive and political advisor who has served as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the science advisor to the president since 2025. Kratsios served as the acting under secretary of defense for research and engineering from 2020 to 2021 and as the chief technology officer of the United States from 2019 to 2021. Kratsios graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in political science in 2008. After graduating from Princeton, he worked as an analyst at Barclays Capital and the Lyford Group International. Kratsios served as the chief financial officer of Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital. He later became a principal at Thiel Capital and served as Thiel's chief of staff. After Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, Thiel hired Kratsios to work for Trump's presidential transition. In March 2017, Trump appointed Kratsios to serve as a deputy chief technology officer of the United States, the only employee in the chief technology officer's office. In March 2019, Trump nominated Kratsios to serve as the chief technology officer of the United States. Kratsios was confirmed by the Senate in August. He became the acting under secretary of defense for research and engineering in July 2020. In May 2021, Kratsios became the managing director and head of strategy at Scale AI. In December 2024, Trump named Kratsios as his nominee for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The following month, Kratsios became the science advisor to the president. He was confirmed by the Senate as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in March 2025.