DHS deputy secretary nominee is outsourcing specialist
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Michael P. Jackson burnished his federal management spurs by overseeing one of the largest government outsourcing projects.
Michael P. Jackson, whom President George W. Bush nominated today for the number two slot at the Homeland Security Department, burnished his federal management spurs by overseeing one of the largest government outsourcing projects. As deputy secretary of Transportation from 2001 to 2003, Jackson supervised planning for the new Transportation Security Administration's outsourced IT infrastructure, which Unisys Corp. provides under the $1 billion dollar IT Managed Services contract.
Jackson led a special working group at Transportation that built TSA under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001. That law mandated the hiring of more than 30,000 passenger screening workers and a dramatic tightening of air travel security.
Jackson told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in December 2001 that planning TSA involved the use of modern management methods. 'To complete the thousands of tasks that must be taken to open the doors of the TSA next year, we are following a time-tested process management approach that successful private sector companies around the world use every day to execute large-scale transactions, mergers or critical activities,' he said in his testimony.
Jackson now is chief operating officer of AECOM Technology Corp.'s government services group in Fairfax, Va. The design and engineering company has held several federal contracts, including assignments at the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories. It provided program management for the Defense Department's Pentagon renovation. AECOM also provides operations and maintenance for an Army facility in Kuwait that serves more than 5,000 military personnel.
Jackson worked as chief of staff to Andrew Card when Card was Transportation secretary for President George H.W. Bush, among other federal jobs. Card now is George W. Bush's chief of staff. Jackson holds a doctorate in political science from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston.
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