indica News Bureau –
The General Services Administration (GSA) has named Indian American Anil Cheriyan as the new director of the agency’s Technology and Transformation Services unit and deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service.
The former executive vice president and chief information officer of SunTrust Banks will replace acting director Kelly Olson in early January.
In his present role, Cheriyan will aid agencies which develop, procure and propagate technologies and lead GSA’s ongoing Center of Excellence programs.
As the director of TTS, Cheriyan will oversee the government’s internal tech consultancy, 18F, as well as the Office of Products and Programs and the Presidential Innovation Fellows
“I am pleased that Anil will join GSA and help continue to strengthen the agency’s IT modernization initiatives,” GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in a statement.
“His previous success transforming how businesses leverage technology to better serve customers will be a major asset in helping the federal government improve its service to the American people.”
Cheriyan said in a statement he is honored to be selected for the role and “will work to advance the IT modernization gains made while at the helm of the service”.
Cherian has also worked for IBM Corp, TVS Clayton, and PricewaterhouseCoopers and has served in leadership roles on a variety of systems, customer information, data warehousing, and e-business engagements.
He earned his MSc and MPhil degrees in management as well as BSc in electronic and electrical engineering from Imperial College in London. He has been the recipient of numerous industry awards throughout his career, including IDC CIO 100, Computerworld Premier 100 Leader and Enterprise CIO of the Year.
Cheriyan worked as CIO at SunTrust Banks from 2012 to 2018. Since January 2018 he has served as chairman of the board of the Technology Business Management Council, a private-sector group that has been advancing ideas on standardizing IT management practices. Cheriyan will continue in his role at the TBM Council.
Established in 1949, the GSA is an independent agency of the US government that helps manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. It supplies products and communications for US government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government-wide cost-minimizing policies and other management tasks.
GSA employs about 12,000 federal workers and has an annual operating budget of roughly $20.9 billion.
It oversees $66 billion of procurement annually and contributes to the management of about $500 billion in US federal property
The Technology Transformation Services (TTS), a component of GSA, applies modern methodologies and technologies to improve the public’s experience with government by helping agencies make their services more accessible. TTS was created to help focus GSA’s efforts at promoted agile development and user-centered design projects.
