Turk to lead e-gov citizen portfolio

E-Government Initiatives Web site

The Energy Department's former head of communications and outreach, Michael Turk, has been named the new manager of the government-to-citizen portfolio for e-government initiatives at the Office of Management and Budget.

Turk will oversee the five initiatives intended to provide online access to government information and services: GovBenefits.gov, Recreation One-Stop, IRS Free File, E-Loans and USA Services. He takes over from Paul Mamo, who held the position after the previous manager, Jonathan Womer, took another job within OMB.

Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for e-government and information technology, announced his new role today at a lunch sponsored by the Association for Federal Information Resources Management.

Turk worked with Evans at Energy. He was involved in the agency's Web site redesign, which made it easier for users to find information and interact with the department, Turk said. Before joining Energy, Turk worked for Grassroots Enterprises Inc., a citizen activism organization.

He said today that he is looking forward to working with the e-government initiatives and project management teams.

"Our focuses are really on those initiatives, just getting out of the blocks in development," such as Recreation One-Stop, he said. He will also be focused on how to expand and improve the initiatives that are further down the road, such as GovBenefits and Free File.