Bush selects career civil servant as new e-gov leader

President Bush on Wednesday announced that he plans to nominate Karen Evans, the Energy Department's chief information officer, as the federal government's technology chief.

Evans would fill the spot vacated by Mark Forman on Aug. 15, when he left the Office of Management and Budget to join a startup technology company in California's Silicon Valley. During his two-year tenure at OMB, Forman led efforts to eliminate duplicative technology and secure federal computer networks against hackers. He also encouraged agencies to share technological resources and break out of a "stovepipe mentality."

As technology chief Forman also headed the administration's 24 electronic government projects, designed to give the public greater access to federal services. The initiatives are part of President Bush's five-part management agenda.

With Evans as chief, OMB's technology office might change its emphasis from "esoteric ideas to things concrete," said Don Arnold, director of business development at PeopleSoft, an information technology consulting company based in Pleasanton, Calif.

Evans differs from Forman in that she is a career civil servant, and is more removed from Bush's immediate political circles, Arnold added. Before serving as the Energy Department's CIO, Evans was director of the information resources management division at the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs, and was also deputy director of the applications management division at the Agriculture Department.

"There are pros and cons with having a career civil servant [as technology chief]," said Paul Brubaker, a partner at ICG Government, a Reston, Va.-based consulting and market research firm, and former deputy CIO at the Defense Department. But experience overseeing the Energy Department's technology projects will help Evans "dive deep into the issues facing chief information officers," he predicted.

Evans successfully gained the respect and attention of Energy officials, "elevating" the CIO position within the department, Brubaker said. "She's one of the few CIOs who has a high level of responsibility, in terms of being sort of a direct report to the [department] secretary," he explained. Evans has also developed good relationships with other CIOs as vice president of the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, Brubaker said, a position she has held since December 2002.

"I think [Evans] was a great choice for continuity, because she and [Forman] are on the same page," said George Molaski, president and chief executive officer of E-Associates LLC, a technology consulting company in Falls Church, Va. "She's done some very innovative stuff at the Energy Department."

Evans has the ability to effectively implement ideas, and will be good at putting in place the processes and procedures Forman has suggested, Molaski added. "We don't need new changes of direction," he said.

The head of Entrust Inc., a digital technology company that has worked with Evans on Energy Department projects, also praised Evans for her skill at following through on plans.

"In the technology arena there are those who get it, and those who get it done," Entrust Chairman Bill Conner said in a statement. "Evans is one of those highly valued leaders who possess both essential qualities."