Ask the CIO

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Charles Christopherson Chief Information and Financial Officer December 27th, 2007

Federal News Network Staff

December 26, 2007 10:35 am

< a min read

Charles Christopherson – Chief Information and Financial Officer

On the surface it might seem like an impossible task, to combine the role of the chief financial officer with that of the chief information officer. Christopherson did it when he was in the private sector and now he is doing it at USDA. What is more, he says if all goes according to plan, whoever eventually takes over for him at USDA will do the same. Christopherson says this dual CIO-CFO role makes sense given the increasingly critical role IT is playing in financial management. He also talks about how being both the CIO and CFO is impacting efforts to modernize USDA’s IT infrastructure and about what the change has meant to the OCIO and OCFO organizations.