DorobekInsider.com: Martha Johnson to be nominated as GSA administrator soon — maybe today

Management

DorobekInsider.com: Martha Johnson to be nominated as GSA administrator soon — maybe today

We’ve been through this before, but… we’re hearing — from very good and multiple sources — that the Obama administration will name...

Federal News Network Staff

April 3, 2009 5:36 pm

2 min read

We’ve been through this before, but… we’re hearing — from very good and multiple sources — that the Obama administration will name Martha Johnson to be the administrator of the General Service Administration as soon as today — but certainly by Monday.

Of course, we are also hearing that GSA’s White House liason, Michael Robertson, is away on travel today, so… would the White House name somebody while that agency’s White House liaison was out of town? (Probably.)

Johnson served on the Obama administration’s GSA “parachute” team — the group that flies into agencies to do a transition assessment. And Johnson has GSA ties, serving as the GSA chief of staff during under GSA Administrator David Baram, who is widely seen as one of the best GSA administrators in some time. (It should be noted that FirstGov, which became USA.gov and was originally proposed as WebGov, started under Baram and the Clinton administration. It is remarkable to see how far things have evolved. The Bush administration was wise to continue to evolve what is now USA.gov. A good lesson for incoming administrations — not everything the former team did was bad.)

We had been hearing that Johnson had turned down the GSA administrator post because of personal, family issues, but that apparently is not true.

Highlights of Johnson’s career from her resume on her LinkedIn profile:

* Vice President at SRA International
* Director at Touchstone Consulting Group
* Vice President at Council for Excellence in Government
* Vice President at Computer Sciences Corporation

Back on May 1999, there was this article in Fast Company magazine that featured Barram and Johnson:

Here’s How GSA Changed Its Ways [Fast Company, May 1999]
Led by Dave Barram, a 24-year veteran of Silicon Valley, and a group of rank-and-file change agents, one of Washington’s stodgiest agencies is learning to be nimble — and to “thrill” its customers.

Read the full Fast Company story here.

Meanwhile, back in April 25, 2000, Baram and Johnson were on the Business of Government Hour sponsored by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. (Read it here… Here it here. MP3)