PTO taps new CIO

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has hired an industry executive as its next chief information officer.

Doug Bourgeois, a former FedEx Corp. executive, officially took over the CIO post at the agency May 21. Bourgeois was most recently managing director of Customer Service Technology at FedEx where he managed the computer application and telephony network environments.

Bourgeois joined FedEx in 1994 as a project manager in the marketing and customer information systems area. He has also held positions at First Commerce Corp., a regional bank holding company, and Allied Signal Aerospace Co.

As CIO at USPTO, Bourgeois is the principal advisor to the commissioner on the application of information technology at the agency. Bourgeois replaces Dennis Shaw, who left government last September to become chief technology officer at the Smithsonian Institution.