Time to join the CIO Community in getting social to thank Suzette Kent for her Most Valuable Player performance as our Federal CIO – and especially her leadership in the coronavirus pandemic. Take a look at this tribute video – and share it on your social channels.
Every winning team’s captain knows that preparation for the big game is essential, and Kent has done that and more since taking over the CIO Council in 2018. Begin with quarterbacking the President’s Management Agenda into reality, then follow through with a relentless commitment to Federal IT modernization, and you’d have a solid Hall of Fame resume.
But only the legendary signal callers are ready with a playbook for the unknowable in the form of the coronavirus pandemic. How do you wrestle with the nearly unimaginable task of sending hundreds of thousands of Federal employees to work from home to provide the vital citizen services that sustain the nation through the worst public health crisis in a century? Listen to Federal CIOs chime in on Suzette’s performance.
Credit for the Federal IT pandemic performance rightly belongs to the agency CIOs and thousands of other tireless professionals. Kent assumes little of it on her own, and we’ll leave it to the many leaders we interviewed in our CIO Crossroads series to do that. Their common refrain: Kent has been a tireless convener of cross-agency leadership dedicated to fast problem-solving in a crisis, no matter the obstacles. Planning and fire drills only go so far; when crisis becomes a reality, there’s no substitute for strong locker room leadership.
As the LSU Tigers fans might say, “Geaux Federal CIO!”