Spires named Homeland Security CIO, faces 'huge challenges'

The Homeland Security Department announced on Tuesday that it has named federal information technology veteran Richard Spires, former chief information officer and later deputy commissioner for operational support at the Internal Revenue Service, as chief information officer.

Spires will take over for Margaret Graves, who has served as acting CIO since Richard Mangogna stepped down in March.

Many current and former federal IT managers recommended Spires for the job, citing his past federal technology experience. "He's a great selection, and I'm thrilled to see him return to public service," said Alan Balutis, a former CIO at the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration and now director of the business solutions group at Cisco's global consulting arm. "His guidance of the IRS modernization program will be a great resource to Homeland Security."

Spires was widely credited with turning around the IRS' multibillion-dollar modernization effort, which prior to his arrival suffered from cost overruns and delays. He left the agency in July 2008 and worked as a consultant.

Spires' ability to turn around the management of the IRS program was the primary reason for his selection as CIO at DHS, which has significant management challenges -- trying to tie together 22 federal agencies under one IT infrastructure, convincing the disparate agencies to share information and technology equipment, and securing the department's networks, which have been porous -- all jobs that perplexed CIOs who preceded him.

"He has huge challenges in front him," said Scott Hastings, former CIO of US VISIT, a Homeland Security program to track the entry and exit of foreign travelers into and out of the United States. "Not only does he have to consolidate the infrastructure, he has to operate in the first year of an administration with new priorities and manage the large investments he will inherit from the old administration. Discretionary spending will be a real issue for him."

Spires will manage information management support processes, "combining the functions of IT and telecommunications to provide coordinated support strategies for meeting DHS-mission related information needs," according to a press release from Homeland Security.

Prior to joining the IRS, Spires served as chief operating officer of software vendor Mantas and worked for 16 years at SRA International.

Spires could not be reached for comment.