Reed taking up residence at EDS

Anne Reed, the first CIO at the Agriculture Department, will be joining Electronic Data Systems Corp.'s Global Government Industry Group on Feb. 1 as vice president for industry relations.

Reed, who has managed a $1.2 billion annual information technology budget for USDA since 1996, said at EDS she will develop partnerships with governments — domestic as well as foreign — and study how IT success stories can be replicated.

"I think the objective is to figure out what kind of partnerships worked and how to help government meet its objectives," said Reed.

As an example, Reed said if one community has a successful traffic management system, why not duplicate it elsewhere instead of starting from scratch to plan a new system.

Reed is the second top federal hire for EDS this month. The CIO from the Defense Logistics Agency, Carla Von Bernewitz, also joined the company.

Reed will be reporting to retired Air Force Lt. Gen Albert Edmonds, the head of EDS' global government unit, who described her as "one of the real innovators in electronic government."

"She will be a valuable asset to the global vision of EDS as a thought leader," Edmonds said. Edmonds joined EDS Federal in 1998 after a 33-year tour capped by his command of the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Pentagon's global network and information systems management agency.

As USDA's CIO, Reed was responsible for rolling out a long-criticized modernization program for the department and placing a moratorium on IT purchases. She defended the award of the Federal Aviation Administration's $250 million Integrated Computing Environment-Mainframe and Networking contract to the USDA. She also oversaw the agency's successful Year 2000 conversion.

Under Reed, the agency restructured its capital investment decision-making process, developed an agencywide information architecture and strengthened its security processes.

Reed is a graduate of Goucher College in Towson, Md., and has a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She and her husband, Steven, an energy lawyer at the Washington law firm Steptoe and Johnson, have three teenagers.