Dave Combs

Agriculture
Dave Combs
Acting Chief Information Officer

When it comes to being the acting chief information officer at the Agriculture Department, Dave Combs wants to be the invisible man. As Combs puts it, if he and his staff are doing their jobs right, then USDA agencies and staff won't need to call on them because the department's information technology will be running smoothly and seamlessly. "I tell folks my job is to be invisible," says the former management executive for AT&T. "I want to be the best-known secret at USDA."

Combs was named acting CIO in June when Scott Charbo, his predecessor, was nominated by President Bush to be the Homeland Security Department's new CIO. At the time, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns called Combs "instrumental" to the operations of Agriculture. It was a fitting adjective for Combs, who founded and ran an independent record company from 1993 until he joined the department in 2002.

But Combs knows that fine-tuning and harmonizing information technology across Agriculture is a daunting task, since the department has 29 different agencies and offices nationwide. That's a bunch of networks to manage. And with an information technology budget of $2 billion, Agriculture expects to spend $814 million on major investments in 2006, more than double what it spent only four years ago.

One of Combs' top priorities is to establish an enterprise architecture for the department. That involves developing a repository that agencies and offices can go to for services, instead of initiating their own procurements.

Infrastructure alone represents about $700 million of Combs' budget, an area where he plans to reap savings by eliminating duplicative processes and systems and instituting better management. He says whatever money is saved through his office can be put into programs that help families and farmers.