IRS executives move up and out

The Internal Revenue Service is reorganizing its executive roles in response to the resignation of Acting Commissioner Kevin Brown, who plans to leave in mid-September. Brown also is deputy commissioner for services and enforcement.Brown leaves IRS to become chief operating officer of the American Red Cross, where he joins his predecessor, former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, who is president and chief executive officer.In a domino process, IRS announced Friday that Linda Stiff, who is the deputy commissioner for operations support, will assume Brown’s positions of acting commissioner and deputy commissioner for services and enforcement upon his departure. Stiff has overseen development of policy for IRS personnel services, technology and security in her current role.Richard Spires, who is the IRS chief information officer, will replace Stiff as deputy commissioner for operations support. As CIO, Spires has maintained overall responsibility for the IRS Modernization and Information Technology Services organization, which supports the federal tax administration system. In his new position, Spires will continue to oversee, and will remain significantly involved in the IRS modernization effort.The IRS had not as yet provided answers about whether Spires would continue as CIO or IRS would choose a new CIO.Before becoming CIO, Spires was the associate CIO for applications development and also led the IRS Business Systems Modernization program. Before joining the IRS, Spires was chief operating officer and director of software vendor Mantas Inc.Brown previously was commissioner of the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division, one of the agency’s four operating divisions, and was Division Counsel in the Small Business/Self-Employed Division. He has also was chief of staff under Everson and, beginning in 1998, played a key role in the IRS reorganization as assistant to then-Commissioner Charles Rossotti.