ABT Program sponsors

A critical success factor for any program is strong sponsorship at the top. The King County Executive as Executive Sponsor provides a clear message of the county's commitment to the success of the ABT Program.

The following are the ABT Program sponsors:

• Ron Sims, Executive Sponsor

  The King County Executive, as the Executive Sponsor of the ABT Program, is ultimately accountable for the success of the ABT Program. The Executive Sponsor provides ABT program leadership, advocates commitment from other elected officials, directs executive department program compliance, and supervises the program sponsor.

• Jim Buck, Program Sponsor

  The County Administrative Officer is the ABT Program Sponsor who is accountable for managing the ABT Program and ensuring that planning and implementation is accomplished within approved scope, schedule and budget. The Program Sponsor supervises the ABT Deputy Program Sponsor and Program Manager.

• Caroline Whalen, Deputy Program Sponsor

  The ABT Deputy Program Sponsor addresses the need for day-to-day redundancy and provides succession planning for the functions of the Program Sponsor. The Deputy Program Sponsor attends all policy and oversight meetings.

ABT Program Manager - Manny Ovena

Manny Ovena joined the ABT Program on June 1, 2006 as the ABT Program Manager. He is responsible for directing the planning and implementation tasks; managing the ABT scope, schedule and budget; resolving program conflicts, roadblocks and other issues and escalating the unresolved ones to committees; recommending business process changes and policies for consideration to committees and organizations; monitoring and reporting benefit realization; chairing committees and providing periodic status reports.

Ovena has over 20 years of experience in technology and has led major technology implementation projects throughout his career. Prior to coming to the county, Ovena spent eight years in public education. He was the Technology Director at Seattle Public Schools where he had responsibility for the implementation of new technology infrastructure and systems including a new district student information system and initial planning for migration to a new human resources and payroll system. He was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Portland Public Schools where he implemented PeopleSoft finance and human resources systems district wide. Prior to his time in public education, Ovena spent nine years in the private sector as an Information Technology (IT) Manager and Project Manager with Weyerhaeuser; and ten years in the public power industry for Bonneville Power Administration and Snohomish County Public Utility District in the areas of budget, finance and technology.

Ovena has a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting from the University of Washington and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Puget Sound. He has taught project management at Seattle Central Community College (2003 – 2007) and was a member of the City of Seattle’s Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (2003 – 2006).