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IT Leadership
“It could hurt or help either way, but you’re tied to that party.”
According to GAO, nine of the 24 CFO Act departments have CIOs who are politically appointed.
A redefined role?
Much has been made of the recent turnover among federal agency CIOs. More than a dozen have stepped down, retired or been reassigned since the end of 2016. Many departments and agencies are still operating with act- ing IT leaders.
That turnover — which included the reassignment of career executives at FEMA and the departments of Educa- tion and Treasury — has been accom- panied by the establishment of two new White House offices: the Office of American Innovation and the Ameri- can Technology Council. In addition, the U.S. CIO position went unfilled for more than a year. All those develop- ments have led some to conclude that the Trump administration takes a dif- ferent view of the CIO role.
“It’s clear that this administration has a different set of priorities,” one former CIO said. “They [cared] a lot more about setting up special assis- tants in the Office of American Innova- tion than they did about finding some- body to be the federal CIO.”
For its part, administration officials have rejected that narrative. Lira told FCW in January 2018 that White House officials are “strong believers” in the office of the U.S. CIO and supportive of agency CIOs in general. More recent- ly, he pointed to the May 15 executive order as evidence of that support. “The game is over,” he said. “CIOs will be the central authority.”
What the Kent era portends
When the Trump administration picked Ernst and Young executive Suzette Kent to fill the U.S. CIO role, eyebrows were raised. Kent had no experience in government, and although she had worked on financial management
IT systems in the private sector, she lacked a substantive background in computer science or technology pol- icy issues.
Contrast that experience with some of her predecessors. Vivek Kundra spent most of his career shuttling from one technology leadership position to another in state, local and federal government. Scott was a technology whiz who, although he lacked govern- ment experience, had led IT operations for massive companies that included Microsoft, Disney and General Motors. Steven VanRoekel also had Microsoft experience, and Mark Forman and Karen Evans, who held the U.S. CIO job before it carried that label, were steeped in public-sector IT.
However, as many CIOs admit that technical knowledge and experience are taking a backseat to other skill sets, Kent might be a prime example of the position’s natural evolution. Scott endorsed Kent after speaking with her, convinced that she could help take the federal government where it needs to go in the era of IT modernization.
“Most really good CIOs I know are really agents of change, and I think Suzette has the capability and capac- ity to do just that,” Scott told FCW.
Kent said much the same in a speech in May during which she emphasized her role as a driver of transformation. “I am not here for my great coding skills, and neither are many of our other CIOs,” she said.
In a subsequent conversation with FCW, Kent elaborated on her role. “What’s important is not only being able to elevate and pull out the best of what’s already happening in gov- ernment, but to bring some of those private-sector practices and implement that discipline more broadly,” she said. “There are some great places where that is being done, but there are oth- ers that we have to make industrial strength and sustainable, not just some- thing that’s done for a single project.”
She also outlined many of the gaps
16 May/June 2018 FCW.COM