The need for cybersecurity talent in the federal government is widely known. What’s less known is the need for every type of information technology talent. The shortfalls in IT talent are pushing some new ways of doing business in federal enterprises.

More agencies are building strategies to hire, retain, and shape a workforce for the future. That strategy is no longer only the purview of Chief Information Officers or Chief Human Capital Officers. These agency executives now collaborate with their agency Chief Learning Officers and other key leaders to develop strategies that hit several key goals:

1) hiring employees as quickly as possible within the limits the current federal hiring system places on them;

2) onboarding the employees with a sense of the agency’s mission and the government’s overall mission, and not just bringing them on as “tech people”;

3) helping each employee build a career track that encourages continual growth and engagement.

In this discussion, we explored these relationships and strategies with experts Mike Casey, the Chief Learning Officer at the General Services Administration; Richard McKinney, Chief Information Officer at the Department of Transportation; Brian Green, Senior Vice President for Sales & Solution Development at Learning Tree International; and Richard Spires, former Chief Information Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, now the Chief Executive Officer at Learning Tree International.

Panel Host:

• Francis Rose, Federal News Radio

Panel Guests:

• Mike Casey, Chief Learning Officer, General Services Administration
• Richard McKinney, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Brian Green, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Learning Tree International
• Richard Spires, Chief Executive Officer, Learning Tree International

Richard McKinney
Chief Information Officer
U.S. Department of Transportation

Richard McKinney is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). He was sworn into office on May 13, 2013.

Richard served most recently as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Digital Government. From 2005 to 2011, he was the Government Technology Advisor for Microsoft’s State and Local Government division. Richard served from 1999 to 2005 as Chief Information Officer for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, a consolidated city/county government. In Nashville, Richard led the Department of Information Technology Services from a “last place” ranking in the 1999 Governing Magazine “Grading the Cities” survey to a top ten finish in the Center for Digital Government annual “Digital Cities” survey starting in 2003.  Nashville remained in the top ten ranking for six straight years.  Prior to working for Nashville city government, Richard was the Director of Information Services for the Tennessee General Assembly from 1995 to 1999.  He served as Assistant Commissioner of Administration for the State of Tennessee Department of General Services from 1987 to 1995.

Richard holds both a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee State University. Richard is married and the proud father of five children and five grandchildren.  In his spare time, he is an avid landscape and nature photographer.

Brian Green
Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions
Learning Tree International

Brian Green is an accomplished business executive – serving both public and private sector organizations – with expertise in defining, designing and implementing solutions to improve human capital performance and program delivery.

Mr. Green leverages an expansive network of over 600+ subject matter experts and senior executive advisors to support Learning Tree’s international client programs. Brian recently architected a solution that became the single largest private training contract to develop project management disciplines at the Department of Veterans Affairs; a 5-year $60M Project Management Improvement Program.

Learning Tree’s Client Solutions organization, led by Mr. Green, supports organizations by aligning the right People, in the right Job, with the right Skills, following the right Process on the right Projects creating highly optimized workforce solutions.

Brian has presented at numerous symposiums hosted by CLO Magazine, Project Management Institute’s Global Congress, Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Health & Human Services. Brian has been published in ASTD’s Public Manager and in Training Magazine. His curriculum designs have also been recognized nationally by CLO Magazine for Excellence in Content Design.

Richard Spires
Chief Executive Officer
Learning Tree International

Richard has been in the IT field for more than thirty years, with eight years in federal government service.

He has served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as CIO for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He led the IRS’s Business Systems Modernization program for two and half years, one of the largest and most complex information technology modernization efforts ever undertaken.

Richard also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Federal Government CIO Council and the Co-Chairman of the Committee for National Security Systems (CNSS), the committee that sets standards for the U.S. Government’s classified systems.

Richard’s private sector career includes providing program management and IT services to the government, telecommunication, and financial services markets.

Richard has won a number of awards for his leadership in IT, including: 2012 Fed 100 Government Executive Eagle Award, TechAmerica’s 2012 Government Executive of the Year, and Government Computer News 2011 Civilian Government Executive of the Year.

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