Improving the Way the Federal Government Serves America
Remarks by
THE HON. DAN G. BLAIR
Acting Director
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Delivered at the
GCN Management Leadership Conference & Awards Program
Washington DC
March 11, 2005
Thank you and congratulations once again to our ten award winners. Your families
and friends and co-workers are very proud of you. You worked hard and richly
deserve this honor.
Leadership is key to improving government management and performance and producing
results for the American taxpayers. You have created a record of excellence
in your agencies by providing leadership to those around you - in the form of
ideas, ingenuity, and technical innovation.
You have also embraced a renewed appreciation of the fundamental role of government
to protect us.
Every day, the war on terrorism is being waged against the backdrop of a million
unheralded acts of patriotism by America's civil servants. We will never know
how many terrorist acts have been prevented, or innocent lives saved, thanks
to public servants such as yourselves.
And today's leaders often have just minutes or even seconds to make critical
decisions. In our current threat environment, it is crucial they have timely
access to the information they need to make those decisions.
Whether tracking potential biological attacks, intercepting satellite communications
traffic, or ensuring the safety and security of our transportation infrastructure,
our reliance on Information Technology could never be overstated.
The evolution of the systems that deliver our information is a great story
in American history.
Just over fifty years ago, the first commercial transistor radio hit the consumer
market, launching the world into the age of instant news, pop music and weather
forecasts.
Forty years ago, the online transaction made its debut when IBM created the
first passenger reservation system for American Airlines, delivering data on
any flight in less than three seconds.
About thirty years ago, Paul Allen and Bill Gates read an article about the
world's first microcomputer kit and both suddenly realized the home computer
market was about to explode, and that someone would need to make software for
the new machines.
Twenty years ago, author William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace, and
Apple's Macintosh became the first computer to offer a graphical user interface
and mouse as standard equipment.
Ten years ago, commercial sites were mushrooming on the World Wide Web and
mass marketing campaigns were launched via email.
And up until about ten years ago, most people thought of spam as some kind of
meat in a can. Today, it is a heavily-used word in the Internet vocabulary.
Today, the world is wired.
Today, baseball fans are just as likely to pull out their Blackberries
during the seventh-inning stretch of a Washington National's game as they would
head into the stadium to buy hotdogs and popcorn.
Today, you are just as likely to get your economic news from
a blogger, as from Business Week.
One cannot help but wonder where all this is taking us. Who's to say what technology
will be doing for us five.... ten.... twenty years from now?
The answer can be found here in this room.
Today, we celebrate the successes of ten people who used technology
to provide a higher level of service to their customers, and ultimately, the
American public. If you want to know what lies just over the IT horizon - talk
to them.
Our honorees today are people our fellow citizens should know. But even more
importantly, these are people our citizens should be inspired by - through their
model service and inspiration.
Today, I am pleased and honored to help get the word out about 10 who have
made a difference - about 10 who have met the expectations President Bush has
for all of us.
If the Government Accountability Office is the government's financial watchdog,
it's Tony Cicco's job to make sure its eyesight and hearing are in excellent
condition.
He is responsible for the network used to analyze data on nearly every subject
imaginable - ranging from supporting reviews of major weapons procurement systems
to managing the risks of auditors working remotely in the field.
Under Tony's leadership, the IT function at the GAO has gone from being a weak
link to one which is hyper-sensitive to customer satisfaction and results-oriented,
and American taxpayers are the direct beneficiaries of his expertise and energy.
The U.S. Army has a lot of different logistics systems operating in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they don't communicate with each other due to different
software baselines and dissimilar hardware platforms.
Colonel David Coker is responsible for updating and modernizing these
systems into a single supply-chain structure, reducing a significant amount
of duplication of effort and keeping programs on time, and on schedule.
The bottom line of leadership is results, and Colonel Coker has delivered.
The benefits to America's taxpayers, and to those who guard our families, our
freedoms, and our way of life during wartime, are very real, and could never
be overstated.
Walton Fletcher is the person the U.S. Marine Corps depends on to keep
pay and personnel systems running smoothly for nearly one half million active
duty, reserve, and retired Marines.
In fact, Walton's division maintains the Defense Department's only integrated
pay and personnel system for both active duty and reserve components. This has
eliminated the need for dual data entry, and the potential for inconsistencies
between the systems because there is no need to transfer information from one
to another.
His leadership won a Top Five DOD Program Award for his team last year and
he is richly deserving of the award he is receiving today.
Mike Frazer is a champion swimmer and Los Angeles County lifeguard who
has rescued more than 500 people since 1980. When an administrative opportunity
opened in the IT side of the business, he traded in his swimsuit for a business
suit and walked off the beach.
But he didn't walk away from saving lives.
On the contrary, Mike has used technology as a life saving tool. Under his
leadership, a high-tech network all along the county's 72-mile coastline allows
lifeguard captains today to more effectively deploy resources when and where
needed.
By lessening the administrative burdens for those on the beach, he has given
lifeguards an opportunity to focus more on their true mission of guarding life.
Today, as LA County's chief lifeguard, we recognize Mike Frazer as a citizen
who has made a difference.
During her 25-year career at the State Department Mary Stone Holland has seen cybersecurity transition from a relatively obscure function to a top departmental concern. A sharp increase in cyberthreats in recent years may have raised her profile, but it has not changed the approach she takes to her job.
She would probably say the key to effective leadership is to take advantage
of the team of experts you have around you.
She followed her own advice and today she manages a worldwide IT security program
that is responsible for maintaining the integrity of systems at the State Department's
260 working locations.
Last winter, Glen Johnson led a State Department effort to track and
report on U.S. and Iraqi progress in reconstructing post-invasion Iraq.
Under his leadership, a secure communications system was created for all American
government programs and the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority. Despite being
in a war zone, Glen's group helped create a secure Internet-based system and
trained personnel in its use and maintenance.
Closer to home, he has directed the modernization of systems that review export
license applications and ensure that U.S. companies export only approved arms
and arms-related products to approved countries in approved ways - a critically
important function.
When Patrick McCreary retired from the Indiana State Police after 21
years, he didn't retire from law enforcement and it's a good thing for all of
us he didn't.
In his new role as a senior policy advisor at the Justice Department, Patrick
took on one of the biggest challenges of his career.
He convinced a wide range of law enforcement organizations with multiple legacy
systems to share information with each other on criminal suspects.
He wasn't able to offer much in the way of financial assistance so he had to
rely on his powers of persuasion and diplomatic skills to convince agencies
to modify their systems and get on board his information sharing project.
Today, he counts more than 200 local and federal law enforcement agencies,
as well as the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, as
his customers.
When Chris Niedermayer became associate CIO at the Department of Agriculture,
its 29 agencies owned some 12 million separate pages requiring hundreds of people
to manage.
Not unlike many other organizations, this loose confederation produced needless
duplication of effort and huge differences in the appearance of the department's
web presence.
Besides making a move towards a portal with a more common look and feel, Chris
has been instrumental in developing the USDA's e-government Strategic Plan,
an important development since the USDA is involved in 21 of the 25 e-government
programs.
Colonel Jill Phillips had drive and persistence and the support of some
very strong technical experts to turn a healthy concept at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center into a working reality - to the benefit of patients with chronic
conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and asthma.
Jill, an Army nurse practitioner for nearly three decades, spearheaded HealtheForces, a Web information system that lets patients and physicians provide input and feedback online, creating a comprehensive electronic medical record.
The system is a great example of President Bush's plan for a nationwide health
IT infrastructure that would help improve quality and lower costs in health
care and reduce medical errors. Colonel Jill Phillips - we salute you!
Last year, Linda Travers was appointed as deputy CIO at the Environmental
Protection Agency, the highest-ranking career position in the agency.
An employee of EPA since its creation in 1970, Linda has had plenty of offers
over the years to go elsewhere, but she stayed, and her work has taken her through
various EPA offices where she has been instrumental in shaping key agency IT
and information management programs.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Linda was instrumental in the design
and development of EPA's state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center which
went from an idea to reality in just six months under her leadership.
Linda, you are a credit to your agency and to the Federal Government.
Each of you has been described as unsung heroes of government IT management
- working your way through the system and toiling behind the scenes.
That's part of what today is about - getting your stories out. America needs
to know who you are and what you've done because you serve as models of service
and inspiration and hope for future generations.
There are eight words from President Bush that I think would make a good screen
saver on any government computer:
"Good beginnings are not the measure of success."
Let me give you the entire quote:
"Government likes to begin things - to declare grand new programs and
causes. But good beginnings are not the measure of success. What matters in
the end is completion. Performance. Results. Not just making promises, but making
good on promises."
Today we honor performance and results, and I want to once again congratulate
our awardees on their splendid achievements.
Each challenge you have faced, you have seen as an opportunity. We commend
you and honor you and thank you for being part of the team.
In my mind, there can be no finer calling than to drive change and results
for our Nation - and you are doing just that.
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today.
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