USPS names Philo as new CIO

The U.S. Postal Service today announced that Ross Philo will be its new executive vice president and chief information officer. Philo replaces Robert Otto, who retired Oct. 1 after more than 25 years at the Postal Service. In his new role, Philo will oversee more than 28,000 locations with critical business systems. He also will have oversight of more than 650 applications and the nationwide telecommunications network. Before coming to USPS, Philo was the director of global energy solutions at Cisco Systems and chief executive officer of Visean before that. He also served as vice president and CIO at Halliburton Energy Services and worked in senior positions with Schlumberger. USPS also announced today that Verizon would run the Postal Information Technology Network Upgrade Project, which consolidates three previously distinct networks to control costs and reduce bandwidth requirements. The 30-month, $60 million contract also includes the redesign, upgrade and management of network services for approximately 300 mail-processing facilities; upgrades to the existing information technology administrative network; and the design, implementation and management of new network services at 188 Postal Inspection Service locations.