Cofoni resigns as head of CSC federal

Paul Cofoni resigned late yesterday after five years at the helm of Computer Sciences Corp.’s Federal Sector, according to industry sources.

There was no word yet on his plans, but as a highly experienced executive in the government integrator field with three decades of experience under his belt, he will likely continue working in information technology. CSC has been interviewing candidates in recent weeks to succeed Cofoni.

Cofoni previously was president of CSC's Technology Management Group. Before joining the company, he worked for General Dynamics from 1974 to 1991. He was vice president of IT services for General Dynamics' East and West Coast operations. He also was an officer in the Army from 1970 to 1974.

Cofoni took over CSC’s Federal Sector in 2001. During his tenure, the company had a particularly tough time with the Internal Revenue Service’s modernization project, which was plagued by repeated delays and cost overruns.

In a March interview, Cofoni told Federal Computer Week, "We paid our price in many ways. Reputationally, financially, many of our people experienced very difficult personal hardship because of all that."

Federal and private-sector officials started modernizing the agency's 40-year-old tax-processing technology in 1999 and saw the effort nearly crash in 2003. After some studies, recommendations and personnel changes, "the vast majority of the lessons learned have been learned," Cofoni said. "The right corrective actions have been taken to keep us out of trouble."

CSC spokesman Chuck Taylor had no immediate comment on Cofoni’s resignation. And Cofoni could not immediately be reached for comment.