Arvo Ott was born in Tallinn on 1954, January 13. He was graduating Tallinn Technical University Department of Electrical Engineering in 1977. From 1976 to 1990 he has employed by Institute of Cybernetics - Head of Department of Speech Technology. Candidate of Technical Sciences (PhD) from 1987.

From 1993 he is Head of Department of State Information Systems of State Chancellery of Estonia. From September, 2000 he is working as Head of Department of State Information Systems of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. His main area of responsibility is the central coordination of state information systems of Estonia including Information Society issues.

Member of Estonian Informatics Council, Committee of Experts on Information Technology of Council of Europe, Estonian representative of International Council for IT in Government Administration (ICA).