Ira Hobbs

Treasury
Ira Hobbs
Chief Information Officer

Among federal chief information officers, Ira Hobbs is known as a people person. Aside from possessing a jovial personality, he's also recognized by many as having had the most influence on the government's technology workforce and its efforts to recruit and retain top talent.

Hobbs co-chairs the Chief Information Officers Council's IT workforce committee, and in that capacity has helped create programs to recruit and keep top technology employees, most of whom could find more lucrative careers in the private sector. His efforts helped shape workforce policies in the 2002 E-Government Act, such as a worker exchange program, which allows the government to send employees to the private sector for periods of time to learn new skills and enhance what they already know. Conversely, the program lets agencies bring in private sector workers for temporary stints.

Hobbs has faced perhaps his biggest professional challenge as CIO of the Treasury Department, which has one of the largest IT budgets of any civilian agency. In 2004, the department ran into controversy when procuring a new round of telecommunications services. Hobbs signed a memorandum of understanding with the General Services Administration that Treasury would eventually consider switching off its networks and using centrally provided telecom services from GSA. The department's plan to procure telecom on its own drew fire from Congress, and Treasury officials canceled, then reopened, the planned procurement.

Hobbs, a native of Tallahassee, Fla., served three years in the Army, then received a bachelor's in political science from Florida A&M University in 1976. He earned a master's in public administration from Florida State University the following year.