Page 51 - FCW, March/April 2018

Gary Washington
Deputy CIO and Acting CIO
Department of Agriculture
Captain Modernization. When
the Of ce of American Innovation launched new centers of excellence dedicated to IT modernization, USDA was the rst agency to sign up. In addition to being a pilot participant, Washington helped oversee a repriori- tization of IT at the agency while serv- ing as acting CIO. (He took over the post permanently earlier this year.) He said getting buy-in on IT modern- ization from agency leaders, including Secretary Sonny Perdue, was a major contributing factor to his success. “One of the great challenges \\\[of mod- ernization\\\] is culture, getting folks to think differently about how services are delivered,” Washington said.
Susan Wedge
Vice President, Public Service Digital and Cognitive Leader
IBM Services
AI evangelist. In a year when every- one seemed to be talking about block- chain and arti cial intelligence, Wedge set out to make government applica- tions a reality. Under her leadership, IBM opened a digital studio space that gives federal partners access to the tools and expertise that are driving digital reinvention for private-sector innovators. Similar transformation
in government requires a tailored approach, and Wedge was instrumen- tal in identifying and providing the
needed adjustments. She also collabo- rated with multiple agencies to launch blockchain pilot projects and helped shift the conversation about cognitive computing from sci- speculation to practical use cases.
Dorsy Yof e
Deputy Director,
Uni ed Shared Services Management General Services Administration
Government whisperer. Yof e has been able to bring federal agencies with different goals and incentives into the growing group of shared- services enthusiasts. She became the second employee at USSM during the waning days of the Obama administra- tion and held steady to her commit- ment to shared services, which the Trump administration has empha- sized. She has been instrumental in developing the Federal Integrated Business Framework, which will allow the government to identify and capitalize on common business needs across agencies that cloud-based solu- tions can address more effectively than the existing siloed approach.
Aleksandar Zelenovic
Strategy and Consulting Lead, Public Sector
Sapient Consulting
Blockchain boundary breaker.
Zelenovic led Sapient’s collaboration with the General Services Administra- tion to implement the rst blockchain project for a procurement activity
in the world — in either the govern- ment or commercial sector. As a result, GSA was able to automate many previously manual functions for
its IT Schedule 70 contract vehicle, cutting cycle times from 110 days to just a few days. It is also expected to reduce legacy maintenance costs by 90 percent. And in keeping with the overall agile development mission, Zelenovic’s team designed, developed and tested a workable model in only eight weeks before its implementation at GSA.
Bill Zielinski
Deputy Assistant Commissioner,
IT Category, Federal Acquisition Service General Services Administration
Categorically fearless. Zielinski had the daunting job of setting the strat- egy for the $54 billion federal agen- cies spend on IT in GSA’s six buying categories. He also worked with key White House of ces to link the Trump administration’s IT modernization and cybersecurity initiatives with acquisi- tion strategies and goals. He was a major contributor to the IT Modern- ization Plan and developed small- agency network and security oppor- tunities identi ed in the plan. At the same time, he led program develop- ment efforts for major GSA contracts, including Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, Alliant 2 and Veterans Tech- nology Services.
Gary Washington
Susan Wedge Dorsy Yof e
Aleksandar Zelenovic
Bill Zielinski
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