Charles
R. Christopherson, Jr.,
Chief Information Officer
Charles Christopherson was confirmed as Chief Financial Officer
of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by the
Senate on November 10, 2005. Under the Chief Financial Officer
Act of 1990, he is responsible to "oversee all financial
management activities relating to the programs and operations
of the agency." The Chief Financial Officer has direct
management of approximately 1,500 of employees located at
the Washington D.C headquarters and National Finance Center
in New Orleans, LA.
On July 18, 2007, Secretary Mike Johanns appointed Mr. Christopherson
to be USDA Chief Information Officer. He will lead the Office
of the Chief Information Officer in providing comprehensive
information technology resources, services, and support to
the Department.
The USDA is one of the largest civilian agencies in the federal
government with over 100,000 employees and over one-third
of the non-taxable debt. The financial organization of the
agency accounts for over $120 billion in program level funds
and over $90 billion in loans.
These programs support the areas of forest maintenance and
fire fighting, farm commodity support, food safety, agriculture
development, foreign agriculture trade, domestic and foreign
nutrition services, rural development, and agriculture research.
With the myriad of programs, the USDA's financial organization
relies on a vast amount of complex financial software to support
production and reporting requirements.
In addition to the financial management of the programs of
the USDA, the Chief Financial Officer is responsibility for
the National Finance Center. National Finance Center (NFC)
is a Payroll Services Center of Excellence and a Human Resources
Center of Excellence for the Federal Government. Through its
high quality, low cost approach, NFC annually processes payroll
for 132 federal organizations totaling $61.5 billion in salaries
for 567,000 civilian federal employees. The NFC reconciles
4 million healthcare benefit records and services $.3 billion
in receivables. In 2005, as New Orleans was devastated by
Hurricane Katrina, the NFC successfully exercised an emergency
deployment plan to relocate computer systems and personnel
to five alternative worksites with no visible disruption to
its federal payroll customers.
Prior to his confirmation, Mr. Christopherson was co-founder
and President of CB Solutions LLC, a consulting firm that
specializes in company turnarounds and cash management. Mr.
Christopherson has extensive experience as a restructuring
executive in the area of finance and operations. This experience
includes executive management in operations and finance for
the construction, technology, and communications industries.
He has been responsible for the functional areas of marketing,
sales, operations, finance, accounting, information systems,
and human resources.
As a Business Group Vice President of Operations and Finance
at Encompass Service Corporation, Mr. Christopherson was a
member of the senior executive team that streamlined marketing,
sales, operations, finance, and information technology in
a new roll-up of large local construction companies which
created the largest electrical, HVAC, network, and facility
services company in the United States. The national company
was well known for such it projects such as Reliant Stadium
in Houston, American Airlines Center and Arlington Stadium
in Dallas, and Coors Field in Denver. As the recession impacted
the construction industry, Mr. Christopherson was a member
of the final management team designed to generate company
cashflow and sell operations.
As the Chief Financial Officer on the restructuring team
of ICG Fiber Optic Technology, the company gained financial
profitability within six months. While still in the position
of Chief Financial Officer, Mr.
Christopherson became the Acting Chief Operating Officer.
During this twelve month period, the company became the second
largest network infrastructure installer and the second largest
value added reseller of Lucent/Avaya network infrastructure
in the nation. With its record profitability, stellar reputation,
and increased market value, the company was sold to an industry
consolidator. Prior to ICG Fiber Optic Technology, Mr. Christopherson
was a consultant to Fortune 500 companies; responsible for
consolidations, internal reporting, external reporting, and
diversified operations for Pacific Telecom, Inc.; and an Assistant
Area Controller for Red Lion Hotels.
Mr. Christopherson was born in the farming community of Twin
Falls, Idaho. He has a Masters in Business Administration
from the Oregon Executive MBA program; a Bachelors in Science
from the nationally ranked accounting program at Brigham Young
University; and a Certified Public Accountant license in the
State of Washington. He has been a Member of the Board of
Directors with business and charitable organizations; and
a conference speaker on financial management, financial organizations,
corporate measurements, and corporate reporting.
http://www.ocio.usda.gov/christopherson.html
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