Army CTO leaves behind rich legacy

A close look at Col. Robert Coxe Jr.'s career shows him helping to usher the Army into the Internet Age. A colleague, after all, called him the "godfather" of the service's enterprise portal, Army Knowledge Online (AKO), which now serves more than 1 million people worldwide.

With that kind of praise and experience, it's safe to say that Coxe, the Army's chief technology officer, will be missed when he retires next month after 27 years of service.

Coxe likens his nearly three decades of experience in the Army to the movie "Forrest Gump," in which the title character ambles into a new, more profound adventure every few years.

"I've had an eclectic career," Coxe said. A quick look at his resume illustrates that point.

Coxe's varied posiions have included program manager for electronic personnel records, commander of the Defense Department's only cold weather testing facility in Alaska and professor at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF).

But Coxe's legacy lies in AKO, the portal that provides Army news, distance-learning opportunities, e-mail accounts, a search engine, chat capabilities and an enterprise collaboration center for Army personnel around the world.

"This right here is the best," Coxe said last month while demonstrating some of AKO's newest personalization features during an interview at his Fort Belvoir, Va., office. That office, where Coxe has spent many nights and even some weekends, is loaded with high-tech tools, including a presenting screen that descends from the ceiling, videoconferencing capabilities, and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Coxe took over as CTO in July 2000, but almost turned down the job at first. He said he considered retiring after ending his tenure as a professor of acquisition at ICAF, a job he loved. "The next best thing to being an ICAF student is being on the faculty."

But the Army held the CTO position for him for a year, and Coxe said he decided to stay to pay back the service. Helping establish AKO, a universal Army tool, allowed him to do that, he said.

Coxe, who officially will retire Aug. 22, said his top three priorities for AKO are:

n Getting a backup site for the portal established with the approximately $50 million in funding that Lt. Gen. Peter Cuviello, the Army's chief information officer, secured in May.

n Transitioning AKO from its pilot stages into full production, which includes moving the entire CTO's office to the new Network Enterprise Technology Command, which will provide management for the service's information technology and networks and offer better control over its vast infrastructure.

n Providing wireless access to AKO through handheld devices.

"Col. Coxe is the godfather of AKO," said Kevin Carroll, program executive officer for the Army's Enterprise Information Systems. "AKO is really at its beginnings, and he had the [plan] for the future. He will always be remembered as the guy who brought it forward and made it happen."

Miriam Browning, the Army's principal director for enterprise integration who is also retiring next month, agreed and called Coxe "one of our Internet pioneers."

"He certainly helped put the Army and AKO on the map in the Internet Age," Browning said.

Coxe didn't want to take all the credit for helping make AKO a truly universal entity, having established its millionth account in May, from 200,000 accounts last November. But he does realize that his legacy rests in the constantly evolving portal.

"I'm definitely one of the guys who left my mark on it," Coxe said, adding that his successors still have much work to do, including getting funding for the multimillion-dollar initiative. "I'd tell them to keep ahead of the curve. Keep the customer focus very tight and keep ahead of their requirements, [and] get a funding line commensurate with an enterprise endeavor."

Coxe has a pretty good idea of where his next adventure will be: the private sector.

A CIO or CTO position with a Fortune 500 company is an objective on Coxe's resume, but some quality time with his family will come first. Watching his son, Christopher, compete as a swimmer is a priority, as well as traveling with his wife, Janet, possibly on a Caribbean cruise, he said. n

The Col. Robert Coxe Jr. file Education: Bachelor's degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, master's degrees in computer science from Kansas State University and in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF). Resume: Army chief technology officer, 2000 to present; director of information management and professor of acquisition at ICAF, 1996 to 2000; professor of software design and systems acquisitions at the Defense Systems Management College, 1995 to 1996; commander of the Army's Cold Regions Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska, 1993 to 1995; product manager for the Personnel Electronic Record Management System and assistant project manager for Automatic Identification Technology at Fort Belvoir, Va., 1991 to 1993. What he'll miss most about the Army: "The camaraderie. You do build up a lot of contacts. People may think maybe it's missing the control or being in charge, but that's not always a good predictor of getting anything done. Leading is essential. I look forward to making that happen in an environment where I'm not commanding. I've done it in the past, I can't see any reason why I can't do it in the future."