Mark Alan Forman
Former Administrator, Office of E-Government and Information Technology

On April 16th 2003 Mr. Forman was appointed by President Bush to be the Administrator for the Office of E-Government and Information Technology. Mr. Forman was the first person in the federal government to fulfill responsibilities normally associated with a corporate Chief Information Officer. Previously Mr. Forman was Associate Director for IT and E-Government at OMB. Under his leadership, the U.S. federal government had received broad recognition for its successful use of technology and E-Government. He was charged with managing over $58 Billion in IT investments and leading the President's E-Government Initiative to create a more productive, citizen-centric government. He also led the development and implementation of federal information technology policy, and was responsible for a variety of oversight functions statutorily assigned to OMB. Mr. Forman also oversaw Executive branch CIOs and directs the activities of the federal CIO Council, as well as chairing or being a member of several key IT-related boards including the President's Critical Infrastructure Board. To improve results from federal IT spending, Mr. Forman created a framework that couples cross-agency teamwork and leadership with a government-wide IT budget decision process built around a results-driven modernization blueprint. Mr. Forman also led the successful definition and development of about 30 multi-agency E-Government and e-Business initiatives such as:

• Simplifying the Firstgov.gov portal using a "three-clicks to service" model that led to Yahoo's recognizing Firstgov.gov as one of the 50 most incredibly useful websites;
• Creation of the first IRS free filing website, using a unique private-public partnership
• Regulations.gov, the world's first government sponsored e-democracy initiative that allows citizens to easily find, read and comment on proposed regulations;
• Definition and deployment of a rigorous cybersecurity improvement process;
• Consolidation of Federal payroll processing centers to save over $1 billion; and
• Restructuring federal training through the Golearn.gov website, which has trained tens of thousands of federal workers at pennies per course.

Prior to joining OMB, Mr. Forman was a Vice President of e-business in Unisys Global Industries, where he was responsible for global public sector e-business and e-government initiatives. In particular, he guided the strategy, definition, and deployment of e-government solutions for U.S. Federal and Unisys Global Public Sector clients. Prior to joining Unisys, Mr. Forman was a Principal in IBM Global Services where he was responsible for definition and deployment of the global public sector e-business strategy. He was responsible for defining strategic e-government offerings and providing business development at strategic accounts. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Forman created and led IBM's Americas Public Sector e-business Consulting Services. Mr. Forman's consulting practice assisted government clients in understanding how to leverage e-business and web-based technologies to achieve order of magnitude performance improvements. His areas of expertise include: Web-based service delivery approaches, e-commerce, computer security policy, government operations, and knowledge management, clients. performance improvement, related business transformation services, I/T investment planning, major systems acquisition programs, and strategic use of e-business technologies. He has over 18 years of experience in government and industry developing improvements in government effectiveness and efficiency.

Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Forman was the Senior Professional Staff Member on the Majority Staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where he played pivotal roles in drafting and enactment of major Federal laws, including the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the Information Technology Management Reform Act, the Federal Acquisition Reform Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and various other DOD and government-wide reform bills. He was the senior advisor to the U.S. Senate on federal acquisition and procurement issues, information technology issues (including use if IT in government restructuring, telecommunications, computer security, and Year 2000 conversion), specific defense and civilian agency programs, business process re-engineering concepts applied to government management, outsourcing approaches, and other government program management issues. In support of the past two chairmen (Senator Roth of Delaware and Senator Stevens of Alaska), he conducted oversight on numerous major systems acquisitions, including: Tax Systems Modernization; FAA, Energy Department Major Acquisitions; civilian and Defense Department telecommunications buys; and numerous weapons programs. He was also responsible for monitoring agency compliance with the Computer Security Act of 1997.

Before working for the Congress, Mr. Forman was employed in management positions with Defense Group Incorporated and The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC). Mr. Forman supervised and provided technical direction for a group of applied operations research analysts studying emerging technologies, defense acquisition, and defense program planning. These efforts included Defense Investment Strategy, Cost-effectiveness Analysis, and Logistics Planning. He also developed the Defense Acquisition Decision Model to identify and prioritize cost-effective weapons investments. He also supervised quantitative studies and development of decision support systems, using operations research and management science techniques to assess affordability of requirements, alternative system concepts, and R&D investments.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Forman worked for the U.S. General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C., where he was an Evaluator in the National Security and International Affairs Division and a Presidential Management Intern (completed August 1985). At the GAO, Mr. Forman's areas of focus were the Defense Department Programming, Planning, and Budgeting System (PPBS); defense acquisition planning and management; and U.S. Defense policy. Mr. Forman also was an Economist for the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers Office of Resource Management where he applied operations research and statistical techniques to determine manpower requirements and allocation options.

Mr. Forman has written numerous papers and reports on government management, e-business, e-government and defense economics issues. He is a Senior Fellow of the John C. Stennis Institute for Public Service. He is an alumnus of the Presidential Management Intern Program. He holds an M.A. in Quantitative Methods and Applied Microeconomics from the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Economics from the Ohio State University.

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