Two execs to leave GSA in wake of reorg
Tom Sharpe and Kevin Youel Page are resigning in the aftermath of a reorganization that changes the face of the Federal Acquisition Service.
In the wake of an organizational shakeup, two of the top acquisition executives at the General Services Administration have given notice they intend to leave the agency.
Tom Sharpe, commissioner of the GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, and Kevin Youel Page, the FAS deputy commissioner, have notified the agency and their employees they resign effective June 24.
Mary Davie, currently assistant commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category, will become acting FAS deputy commissioner on the same day.
Federal News Radio first reported the twin resignations.
Both departures come only days after an unexpected reorganization of the FAS that folded in the GSA’s relatively new Technology Transformation Service.
Sharpe's role at FAS is scheduled to be assumed by a political appointee in the coming weeks as part of that reorganization. Alan B. Thomas, a former defense procurement analyst with experience as an executive in the government contracting community will replace Sharpe.
At the time of the announcement, agency sources only said Sharpe would lead the organization until Thomas took over, but they gave no information on what Sharpe’s future role there might be.
Sharpe is a career federal executive who has led FAS since 2013.
Sharpe's departure was no surprise to contractors FCW talked with who have worked with FAS and Sharpe. They have said Sharpe has been talking about retirement for at least a year.
More surprising, they said, was Youel Page’s decision to leave. Youel Page has been a star for the agency. He was awarded Fed 100 honors for his 2016 work helping the agency make practical access to cloud services a priority. He established a platform at FAS to allow federal customers to consume services based on a cloud model and positioned GSA to eventually become a shared-services provider of infrastructure, platform and software as a service.
However, several industry sources suggested that Youel Page's departure might be attributed to the change that put a political appointee rather than a career fed in the FAS top job. Such a change could have the effect of curtailing advancement opportunities for senior executives.