Energy names California deputy as CIO

Mike Locatis would replace Tom Pyke who retired in February. Locatis has never worked for the federal government before.

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
Federal News Radio

The Energy Department has named Mike Locatis as its new chief information officer.

Sources confirmed Secretary Steven Chu announced the appointment last week. Locatis will start Monday, sources said.

Locatis is the deputy CIO in California. This would mean the top two technology officials from the state likely are coming to the federal government. The Defense Department is expected to name Teri Takai, California’s CIO, as its CIO in a matter of weeks. Takai has been in limbo as DoD has been restructuring its technology oversight operations.

Locatis would replace Tom Pyke who retired after 45 years in government last February. Bill Turnbull has been acting CIO since Pyke retired.

Locatis came to California from Colorado in June. He was Colorado’s CIO for more than three years, where he was responsible for providing strategic direction and management for executive branch information and communications technology operations. He also was CIO for Denver and worked for TimeWarner.

He comes to Energy which has seen a lot of turnover in its CIO office this year.

Locatis will have a $2.2 billion IT budget and face several challenges, including managing all that funding through a mature process. DoE’s Inspector General released a report in September citing ineffective capital planning and control processes.

The IG also found weaknesses in how DoE manages electronic records in another report released last month.

(Copyright 2010 by FederalNewsRadio.com. All Rights Reserved.)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.