The Circuit

The New Year brings with it staff changes inside and outside government. Here are some recent comings and goings:

Debra Stouffer, chief technology officer at the Environmental Protection Agency and a leader in helping develop federal information technology policy, is heading for the private sector.

Stouffer has accepted a position with DigitalNet Inc. to be the company's vice president of consulting services and expects to begin around Feb. 1, she said in an e-mail. Stouffer said she will focus on providing consulting services to federal agencies to support the implementation of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and e-government strategies.

Stouffer, who is also president of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management, has been CTO at the EPA since May 2002.

Robert Otto was tapped as the U.S. Postal Service's new CTO. Otto will continue to manage and maintain USPS' IT infrastructure, as he did as the former USPS chief information officer.

In addition, as CTO, Otto will take on a decision- making role for operational standards. Otto reports to the chief financial officer, and he will oversee the operation of one of the world's largest intranets, which connects processing centers and 38,000 post offices.

Judith Russell, an electronic information expert and trained librarian, has been named superintendent of documents at the Government Printing Office. Russell began her new job Jan. 6.

The first woman to be named to the post, Russell is in charge of ensuring that the public has the best possible access to government information. "A fundamental part of the job is ensuring access, not just today, but for future researchers who want to check policy over time," Russell said in a telephone interview.

Prior to her appointment, Russell served as deputy director of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, the federal commission that advises the president and Congress on the public's information needs.

Miriam Browning, former director of enterprise integration in the Army CIO's office, last week became a principal on Booz Allen Hamilton's new defense systems team.

Browning, who retired from the Army in August 2002, said she selected Booz Allen because "it is the gold standard of consulting firms" and has solid, long-term potential.

Anne Reed will become president of Acquisition Solutions Inc., a consulting firm that helps the federal government retool its procurement practices. Reed was most recently president of EDS' state and local government group. Prior to that, she was the CIO at the Agriculture Department.

"The company has been on the forefront in assisting government in transforming procurement practices to ensure that government gets the best value — a commitment that I share," Reed said.

At the end of this month, Alan Balutis is expected to leave the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC), a collection of professional groups that fosters communication among federal IT managers and users and industry.

In recent months, Balutis, executive director of FGIPC, has come under fire from the corporate members of the Industry Advisory Council (IAC), one of the largest FGIPC councils, for accepting consulting work from several companies that are members of the organization he heads.

In November 2002, the IAC and FGIPC boards sent Balutis a letter informing him that he must discontinue all his consulting work if he wanted to remain FGIPC director. Last month, Balutis responded, saying he would leave effective Jan. 31, but he seeks an exit package from his $138,000-a-year-plus-bonuses job as part of the deal, according to sources.

Don Upson, the former technology czar for Virginia, is leaving his position as senior vice president for business operations in webMethods Inc.'s federal operations unit but will continue working with the integration company as a consultant.

Upson told Federal Computer Week Jan. 8 that he would continue helping the government on "various technical things." Upson was vice president at Litton PRC Inc. before his 1998 appointment as Virginia's technology secretary.

Monte Belger, the Federal Aviation Administration's former acting deputy administrator, has been named vice president of transportation systems solutions in Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Air Traffic Management division. He retired from the agency in September 2002 after a 30-year run.

Belger will guide the company's business expansion into the broader transportation market, with a focus on aviation and intermodal initiatives, according to a Jan. 8 news release.

Also on the move: John Branan began work as the Interior Department's first CTO in November 2002, leaving his post as chief computer scientist at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Dave Nelson, NASA's former deputy CIO, is now on assignment as director of the White House's National Coordination Office for IT Research and Development.

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