Dale W. Sopper

Social Security Administration
Dale W. Sopper
Deputy Commissioner for Finance,
Assessment and Management,
Chief Financial Officer,
Chief Acquisition Officer

"Time flies when you're having fun," says Dale W. Sopper. For him, "fun" means overseeing all the finance, procurement and management issues at the Social Security Administration. His responsibilities include the budget, business processes, financial policy, accounting, acquisition, facilities management, warehousing, printing and more.

His ascent to deputy commissioner came over the course of nearly four decades at Social Security and the Health and Human Services Department. He began his federal career in 1965 as a Social Security claims insurance specialist in Kansas City, Mo.

Sopper has received numerous awards for his work, most recently a distinguished leadership award from the Association of Government Accountants. He counts as his greatest achievement SSA's new accounting system, which earned the agency a green in financial management on the president's traffic-light-style management score card at the end of fiscal 2003.

His next goal is to provide managers up-to-the-hour financial information using the latest version of the Oracle accounting system. "That will be an incredible achievement-almost real-time information available throughout the agency," Sopper says. Social Security became the first agency to use the system in October 2003.

As the senior procurement executive, Sopper says his top priority is maintaining an expert workforce: "If the staff is well-trained and we keep them current on all the different nuances that affect acquisition activity, we're never going to have a problem." He credits his success to coaching and encouragement from high-level mentors. "I just hope," he says, "that I continue to do that same type of thing for people I work with."