After a taciturn first few months as federal chief information officer, Steven VanRoekel appears to be warming to the public stage with two speeches scheduled in just three days next week.
The CIO is slated to speak Wednesday at a government technology panel connected with the Consumer Electronics Association's CES conference in Las Vegas. On Friday he'll address an Association for Federal Information Resources Management luncheon back in Washington.
These two addresses will be only his fourth and fifth since taking his post in early August.
This could be a signal VanRoekel plans to take to the bully pulpit -- more in the nature of his predecessor, the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra, who often made multiple public appearances in the same week.
The CIO's office is lobbying Congress to give agency CIOs more control over IT budgeting and, like other divisions, is in a battle to retain its own budget in the face of likely federal spending cuts.
VanRoekel may also be eager to escape Washington as Winter finally sets in. His first speech after being named CIO was in Silicon Valley in October.
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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