CIO Profiles: Andy Blumenthal, CTO Of The Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms And Explosives
Oct 30, 2009 (08:10 PM EDT)
Read the Original Article at http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221200008
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Andy Blumenthal CTO, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives | |
Most important career influencer: My father, who encouraged me to always pursue higher education.
Decision I wish I could do over: I wish that I had joined the government right out of college, because public service is extremely meaningful, the opportunities to learn are vast--and I would have been able to retire to South Beach in my 50s!
The federal government's top technology priority should be ... building our cybersecurity capabilities to protect against evolving threats that are potentially crippling.
Best way for CIOs to cope with the economic downturn: Look beyond the immediate hardship and focus on your long-term goals. Ask yourself this question: Where are the opportunities for you to provide value a few years down the road?
Kids and technology careers: Believe in guiding every child according to his or her path. That said, if your children are interested in technology careers, that's great, as there's no more exciting area of specialization. Technology is by definition possibility.
Size of IT team: More than 800, including government and contractor personnel, supporting the ATF's Office of Science and Technology.
Top initiatives: >> Establishing an Office of the CIO that is uniquely strategic in that it will incorporate IT management best practices across the spectrum of enterprise architecture, IT governance, project management, CRM, IT security, and performance management.>> Rolling out a robust ATF portal to provide access to and interactivity with the resources that employees need to do their jobs and to share and collaborate with other law enforcement partners.
>> Initiating our Next Generation Case Management System to support our special agents and industry operations investigators in the field with advanced tracking, analytical, and investigative capabilities.
How I measure IT effectiveness: It's all about the mission of the bureau--delivering capabilities that citizens want, need, and can use.
Leisure activities: Kayaking, hiking, blogging, and friending famous people on Facebook
Last vacation: It's only been months, but it seems like ages ago--I dimly remember the beach
Biggest business-related pet peeve: When key decisions are made by gut, intuition, politics, and subjective management whim
If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a psychologist with my own clinical practice, TV talk show, advice column, and book series