Otto Wolff

Commerce
Otto Wolff
Assistant Secretary for Administration,
Chief Financial Officer,
Chief Acquisition Officer,
Chief Human Capital Officer

Otto Wolff wears a number of hats at the Commerce Department, and he's been there under several administrations. He was an assistant to Malcolm Baldrige, the secretary of Commerce from 1981 to 1987, and later became the deputy assistant secretary for administration.

He left during the Clinton administration for Capitol Hill, where he worked with the Committee on House Administration to implement reforms that accompanied the Republican takeover in 1994.

He returned to Commerce when George W. Bush took office, becoming assistant secretary for administration in August 2001. Wolff is at once the chief financial officer, chief human capital officer and chief acquisition officer, and is responsible for a range of management areas, including strategic planning, budgeting, security, civil rights, small business utilization and real property management.

The Commerce Department has earned top marks on financial management and human capital on the President's Management Agenda score card. In competitive sourcing, an initiative aimed at letting contractors bid on government work considered commercial in nature, the department is slightly weaker but still earned a yellow light-a middle ranking-on the last round of grades.

Wolff, who graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in finance, has testified on behalf of the Chief Financial Officers' Council about efforts to improve internal controls. Strong checks and balances are critical to the broad goal of getting good financial information to managers to "ensure [they] are making more timely and informed decisions," he told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Management, Finance and Accountability earlier this year.

Wolff served as an active-duty Air Force officer in Vietnam, Europe and the United States.