Coxe leaving FEMA

Now that the two programs he was brought in to oversee as program executive officer (PEO) at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have matured or moved, retired Army Col. Robert Coxe is moving along as well.

Coxe is deputy chief information officer for e-government at FEMA and the former chief technology officer of the Army. He retired from the Army last August, but said he delayed his plans to pursue a career in the private sector because of the national security missions of the two projects he came to FEMA to manage: Project SafeCom and DisasterHelp.gov.

SafeCom, a national public safety wireless interoperability initiative, is designed to enhance communications among first responders. It is moving to the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate in an effort to kick start the program, Coxe said.

DisasterHelp.gov is a one-stop portal for emergency preparedness and response information. It eventually will support more than 4 million members of the first responder community — firefighters, police officers and emergency medical technicians — pulling together several systems, simplifying services and eliminating duplication.

Both programs are among the 24 cross-agency e-government initiatives highlighted by the Bush administration, but as soon as SafeCom was moved, "that broke the requirement for PEO," Coxe said, because it left him with only DisasterHelp.gov, which already has a program manager.

Coxe said his last day will be June 1. Although he is not sure what his next job will be, he said it will "definitely be in the private sector" and preferably in a chief operating officer-type role.