Howard, the first CIO of FTS, to retire after 35 years in government
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Steve Howard, the first chief information officer at the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service, will retire from his post at the end of the year, completing 35 years of government service. "I decided to retire because I've had a full, rewarding and satisfying career," he said, and this represents an "opportune time to move on to new challenges."
Steve Howard, the first chief information officer at the General Services
Administrations Federal Technology Service, will retire from his post at the end of
the year, completing 35 years of government service.
I decided to retire because Ive had a full, rewarding and satisfying
career, he said, and this represents an opportune time to move on to new
challenges.
Howard worked at GSA for 31 years and has been the CIO for the Federal Technology
Service for the past two-and-a-half years. During his career, he also served as deputy
assistant commissioner of GSA for IRM.
It has been an exciting and challenging time to work for the government in the
information technology field, said Howard, who started his career writing code for
large mainframe systems.
He said the stodgy reputation of GSA is not accurate when it comes to IT.
Although GSA is looked upon as a pretty staid old agency, it has always been close
to the leading edge of technology for internal applications, he said.
Howard said he is particularly proud to have worked on the implementation of GSAs
agencywide network infrastructure, which supports nationwide e-mail and workflow systems.
He said that GSA employees benefited from early access to agencywide e-mail and the
Internet.
In his current job, Howard said he enjoyed being the first person to fill the CIO post.
A highlight of my present job in FTS is the satisfaction taken from building a CIO
organization from scratch, as FTS grew from 250 to 1,400 employees, he said.
During his years at GSA, Howard also worked on Vice President Gores reinventing
government project. He helped develop procurement reform proposals as a staff member of
the Electronic Commerce Program Management Office.
I think the effects of procurement reform which tool place under former Office of
Federal Procurement Policy administrator Steven Kelmans tenure
will result in
the most positive and longest lasting changes of any project with which I was
involved, he said.
Howard, who turns 55 next month, said his plans are undefined.