Federal 100 winner: Molly O'Neill

O'Neill served as both Web 2.0 visionary and chairwoman of the CIO Council's Architecture and Infrastructure Committee.

Molly O'Neill

Assistant administrator and chief information officer

Office of Environmental Information

Environmental Protection Agency

O'Neill, who left EPA at the end of the Bush administration, kept one eye on the present and one eye on the future of federal information technology.

She is best known for her role as a Web 2.0 visionary, helping her colleagues at EPA and elsewhere to understand how that emerging technology might apply to government. But in 2008, she also served as chairwoman of the CIO Council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee. Among other tasks, she played a critical role in getting agency support for the concept of developing segmented architectures.

“She brought new clarity to the role of architecture in agencies,” said Richard Burk, former chief architect at the Office of Management and Budget. As for O'Neill's role on the council's committee, “she redefined the subcommittees and their roles and brought on new leadership to better fit the challenges for the strategic use of IT in the federal government. She has great drive and passion but carries out her responsibilities with a disarming easy-going demeanor,” Burk said.