AMS lures Washington's Kolodney

Washington state's chief information officer, Steve Kolodney, is joining

American Management Systems Inc. to lead the information technology consulting

firm's public-sector e-government initiatives.

Kolodney has been CIO for Washington since 1995, with a brief excursion

into the private sector in 1999.

Under his leadership, the Washington Department of Information Services

(www.wa.gov/dis) received much acclaim, including the National Association

of State Chief Information Officers' Outstanding Achievement in the Field

of Information Technology award and the Progress and Freedom Foundation's

Digital State award for 2000.

Kolodney's department also received civic.com's State and Local 50 award

in 2000 for developing Access Washington (access.wa.gov), the state's Web

portal.

Craig Lewis, vice president of marketing and market solutions for AMS'

State and Local Solutions Group, praised the addition of Kolodney.

"If you're familiar with what we do, with our history, then you'll see

this addition is about what we do, which is ultimately [bringing] the legitimate

delivery of IT systems to citizens," Lewis said. "It makes great sense for

Steve to complement us with his practical experience in the public IT sector."

Last summer, Washington became the first state to join AMS' buysense,

an online marketplace that enables employees to search electronic catalogs

and place orders for goods and services.