Treasury CIO headed to industry

Mayi Canales, the acting chief information officer at the Treasury Department, is resigning her government job to start her own consulting firm.

Canales, 44, told her staff Oct. 11 that she is leaving Oct. 25 to form a company that will do strategic planning and contract management, focusing on both federal and state customers.

"I always said I'd go back to the private sector before I'm 45, and I'll be 45 next summer," she told Federal Computer Week in a telephone interview Oct. 16.

Canales said she is known "for streamlining and cutting, and you can't do that forever."

In government, she said, "When we make cuts, streamline and take control for a year and a half, historically people leave, and they let [other] people come in and stabilize."

Since replacing Treasury CIO Jim Flyzik, who is on detail to the Office of Homeland Security until mid-December, she has been charged with restructuring the CIO's office. She has cut positions and contracts and changed the reporting structure within the organization. Although she officially replaced Flyzik in April, she had been doing his job on-and-off for the past 18 months while he was on various details.

Flyzik said Canales has been looking to get back to the private sector. "That's all part of her career plan," he said.

As for rumors that the inspector general is looking into her work, Canales said, "There is no IG report. I have been investigated left and right. That's what happens when you make cuts. It's just a fact of life."

Canales said she saw the opportunity to start her own company when Migo Miconi, a friend, retired from his job working for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.)

Canales also said she is working on finding a replacement for the CIO post and hopes to have one shortly. She also said she did not know what will happen to her position as co-manager of the e-government portfolio for the CIO Council.