FCC taps GSA’s Hill to be new CIO

The Federal Communications Commission will have a familiar face as its new chief information officer.

Allen Hill, the deputy assistant commissioner for Category Management in the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, will join the commission on Aug. 1, Federal News Network has learned.

Hill, who joined GSA in 2018, has worked on a variety of programs, including leading the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) network modernization program as well as more recently the expansion of the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) initiative and the roll out of the 2nd Generation Information Technology Blanket Purchase Agreements (2GIT BPAs), 8(a) STARS III, Polaris and the USAccess USPS pilot.

“Allen’s contribution to ITC’s success over the last three-plus years cannot be understated. I value him as a colleague, a leader and a friend. While it is a loss for us, I’m also truly excited for his next professional chapter,” Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner of the ITC, said in an email to staff, which Federal News Network obtained. “Given the deep bonds he has built throughout GSA, I am confident our paths will continue to cross in the federal space. So rather than say goodbye, I will look forward to working with him to ensure the FCC has a full suite of IT and telecommunications products, services and solutions to enable their mission.”

Andrea Simpson, the FCC’s chief information security officer, currently is the acting CIO since March. FCC deputy CIO Shaun Costello had been acting CIO for the previous five months.

The FCC’s last permanent CIO was Francisco Salguero, who left in October to join Salesforce as a digital acceleration architect.

An email to the FCC seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

The FCC’s fiscal 2023 budget request offers a glimpse of what Hill will be inheriting. Among the investments the FCC is seeking funding for is the implementation of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to provide 2,000 employees a more secure, robust and stable capability. The FCC says in its budget that the $2.5 million request “is required to support an optimized multisession technical design, increased virtual machine (VM) resource consumption, increased shared file storage utilization and implementation and integration of a VM power management capability. This enhanced capability provides needed functionality benefits in support of the growing and evolving communication requirements of commission staff.”

Another priority is around cybersecurity where the FCC is asking for $2.26 million to better “comply with Office of Management and Budget mandates, Homeland Security Department binding operational directives and emergency directives. Without a continuous budget to specifically support cybersecurity, the FCC will continue to react to threats versus taking active measure to protect against them. The threat landscape is constantly shifting and the tools, capabilities and training needed to combat these threats continuously evolves. This increase will ensure FCC staff have appropriate tools and knowledge to address threats and continue to help achieve the FCC’s mission and strategic objectives.”

A third priority area outlined in the FCC’s budget request is $1 million for application development teams.

“The commission requires new resources to support four to five IT development teams. This will enable the FCC IT group to be more agile and responsive to development efforts requested by the commission’s bureaus and offices. These development teams will minimize the ramp-up time required to begin each new IT development project and enable FCC IT to support concurrent development initiatives. Further, this approach will result in significant time-savings associated with initiating and executing contract modifications.”

Hill has been with GSA since 2018, coming over from the Education Department where he served as the director in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. During his five years with Education’s CIO office, he led the strategic planning, policy development and executive management of all IT, management and assurance systems. He oversaw more than $50 million in IT support services contracts, including those related to network, mobile and security. His work has helped ensure that millions of students and thousands of schools throughout the nation receive their funds.

Hill also served as the director of Pacific operations at CACI and as a senior technical advisor with Verizon Business working with the Defense Information System Agency (DISA). He also has 20 years of experience with the Air Force.

Stanton said Larry Hale will be the acting deputy assistant commissioner. Hale already is the acting director of the Office of IT Services in FAS.

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