Who is Joe Gebbia? Airbnb co-founder becomes first Chief Design Officer, plans to make government services as seamless as the Apple App Store

Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder, has been appointed as the first-ever Chief Design Officer (CDO) of the United States. President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, August 21, creating the role, which will focus on modernizing federal services through a program called “America by Design.” Gebbia shared his appointment for the post on his X account.

With the news of his appointment, Joe also shared his plan on X to make government services as seamless and user-friendly as the Apple App Store: “My directive is to update today’s government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software”.

The release states that the National Design Studio will function within the White House Office of the Executive Office of the President. Gebbia will serve as the Chief Design Officer under an administrator who reports directly to the White House Chief of Staff.


The executive order requires agency heads to consult with Gebbia to achieve "initial results by July 4, 2026."

This initiative will focus on prioritizing websites and physical locations that have a significant impact on the daily lives of Americans.

Who is Joe Gebbia?

Joe Gebbia is an American entrepreneur, designer, and co-founder of Airbnb and Samara. An early innovator, he started his career as an artist and later double majored in Graphic Design and Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he also served as student body president and founded the RISD basketball team.

He took additional courses at Brown University and MIT, focusing on public speaking, environmental studies, and product development.

Joe co-founded Airbnb in his San Francisco apartment, transforming it into a global platform with millions of listings across over 190 countries.

He has spoken internationally on entrepreneurship and design, appearing at TED, Wired, and 99U, and has been recognized by Inc. 30 Under 30.

Airbnb was named one of the top 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company and Company of the Year by Inc.

In addition to Airbnb, Joe is the co-founder of Samara, a Tesla board member, and has founded several design and product ventures, including CritBuns, Ecolect, and Juice Studios.

What will CDO do?

According to a Bloomberg report, the primary reason for the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) role is the pressing need to modernize America’s outdated digital infrastructure.

Federal agencies manage over 26,000 websites, many of which are fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to navigate.

Even with billions of dollars spent each year on maintenance, citizens, businesses, and government employees often face challenges in efficiently accessing services.

White House official David Sacks said on X that Gebbia will "oversee the redesign of roughly 26,000 federal web portals, many of which are obsolete, so they better serve Social Security recipients, veterans, and all citizens."