McClure leaving GSA

Dave McClure, associate administrator of the GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications confirmed he is retiring from the agency.

In an April 17 email to FCW, McClure declined to discuss his future plans in detail while still on the job, but said he is leaving GSA at the end of May.

News of the April 16 internal email in which McClure announced his retirement plans was first reported by NextGov. GSA did not respond to questions about who might fill the position, but GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini said McClure "has played an invaluable role in making this agency a leader in digital innovation.... He has left a strong foundation that everyone at GSA, and the entire federal government, can build on in the years to come."

Rumors of McClure's possible departure have circulated for months as he approached retirement eligibility, but multiple sources said McClure may had taken some time to help set up a transition plan.

His tenure at GSA is distinguished, including sweeping programs aimed at implementing and managing the federal government's migration away from traditional, dedicated IT operations to cloud environments, as well as innovation in IT contracting methods. He has been a leading advocate for the Obama administration’s cloud-first policy as a way to save money and enhance efficiency across government.

McClure also shepherded one of the government's key cloud initiatives, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), through the interagency review and approval process to its fruition. FedRAMP has gone from an idea to becoming the "law of the land" for a standardized approach to assessing and authorizing cloud products and services, said one source.

McClure's efforts to improve federal IT and drive down inefficiencies across government have earned him FCW's Federal 100 award four times -- in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2012. In 2012, he won FCW's government Eagle award for his leadership on GSA’s infrastructure-as-a-service contract, which allows agencies to buy IT services as needed rather than purchasing and maintaining more hardware. He also received AFFIRM's 2010 Governmentwide IT Leadership Award.

Before joining GSA, McClure had been managing vice president for Gartner Inc.’s government research team. He served on the Obama-Biden transformation, innovation and government reform transition team, which examined federal agency IT plans and status for the incoming administration. McClure has also served as vice president for e-government and technology at the Council for Excellence in Government.

Before joining Gartner, McClure had an 18-year career at the Government Accountability Office, where he reviewed major systems development and IT management capabilities in almost all major Cabinet departments and agencies. He also served as ex-officio member of the Federal Chief Information Officer Council from its start in 1996 through 2001.

Note: This story was updated on April 17 to add comments from GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini.