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Two executives leave GSA in wake of reorg
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In the wake of a recent organizational shakeup, two top acquisition executives at the General Services Administration have left the agency.
Tom Sharpe, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, and FAS Deputy Commissioner Kevin Youel Page resigned effective June 24. Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category, is now serving as acting FAS deputy commissioner.
Both departures came only days after an unexpected reorganization of FAS that folded in GSA’s relatively new Technology Transformation Ser- vice. Rob Cook, who was recruited last year to be TTS commissioner, now oversees those operations as a FAS deputy commissioner.
The role of FAS commissioner will be given to a political appointee. Alan Thomas, a former defense procurement analyst with experience as an executive in the government contracting community, will replace Sharpe — a career federal executive who led FAS since 2013.
In a memo announcing the reorganization, Acting GSA Administ-
rator Timothy Horne said folding all the teams focused on government modernization into FAS would help GSA “leverage its expertise and assets in support of the White House and its Office of American Innovation.”
TTS was established just over a year ago and set up as an independent ser- vice in part to signal a focus on tech- nology upgrades governmentwide.
Sharpe’s departure was no surprise
involved establishing a platform at FAS that allows federal customers to buy services based on a cloud model and positioned GSA to eventually become a shared-services provider of infra- structure, platform and software as a service.
Several industry sources said Youel Page’s departure might be attributed to the decision to put a political appointee in the top job at FAS rather
Combining the teams focused on modernization will help GSA “leverage its expertise and assets in support of the White House and its Office of American Innovation.”
— GSA ADMINISTRATOR TIMOTHY HORNE
to contractors who have worked with FAS. Several told FCW that Sharpe has been talking about retiring for at least a year.
More surprising, they said, was Youel Page’s decision to leave. He has been a star at the agency. He won a Federal 100 award for his work in 2016 to help GSA make practical access to cloud services a priority. His efforts
than a career federal employee. Such a change could have the effect of curtailing advancement opportunities for senior executives.
Youel Page declined to comment on his next career move, telling FCW only that he was taking an overseas vacation immediately after wrapping up at GSA.
— Mark Rockwell
FCW CALENDAR
7/15 Internet of Things
NIST Computer Scientist Jeffrey Voas will give a keynote
address at this FCW event on IoT’s role in connected government. Other speakers include DHS’ Brian Done and NTIA’s Evelyn Remaley. Washington, D.C.
fcw.com/IoT
7/20 Contracting
NASA SEWP’s Darlene Coen and GSA Schedule
70 Director Jose Arrieta are part
of Deltek and Washington Technology’s Q4-focused event. McLean, Va. washingtontechnology.com/Spending
8/9 Cybersecurity
Air Force CISO Peter Kim will be a keynote speaker at this FCW summit exploring mission-appropriate
security risk assessments, public/ private collaboration, behavioral biometrics and more. Washington, D.C. fcw.com/cybersecurity
July 2017 FCW.COM 3