Neal Fox to launch consulting firm

Neal Fox, former assistant commissioner for commercial acquisition at the General Services Administration, is launching a consulting practice.

Fox, whose last day at GSA was July 29, said that he will advise companies on government contracting and procurement issues as a consultant once he gets the practice off the ground.

Fox began his government career in 1976 as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 2002 and joined GSA.

He said he chose to leave GSA as the agency's reorganization kicks into high gear because he had planned to depart anyway.

"I did not want to commit to another year or more with GSA getting the new Federal Acquisition Service started, since I knew that I would be leaving for the private sector sometime soon," he said. "I felt it was not right to take a position in the new organization just to leave shortly thereafter. The reorganization may have moved my time table up, but it was not the reason I left GSA."

While at the procurement agency, Fox managed the GSA Schedules program, which channels about $32 billion a year from government customers to contractors, and the agency's governmentwide acquistion contracts, which do about $3 billion a year in business. Fox also oversaw the SmartPay government credit card program.

"Some of the things I am most proud of are re-orienting the focus to the customer, putting in place electronic contracting processes, and using innovative approaches to make GSA more efficient," he said.