Rising Star: Kimberly Lyimo

If Kimberly Lyimo is ever looking for a change of scenery, she might try her hand at diplomacy.Lyimo, a 30-year-old chief of portfolio-related services at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, started assessing ATF’s unfunded, mission-critical information technology portfolio in November 2007. During a three-month period, she developed a process for building consensus among bureau executives about which of those initiatives have the highest strategic potential and are worth funding. The achievement was noteworthy because ATF’s Enterprise Architecture Board had not made an effort to reach consensus on the highest priorities, said Mitra Nejad, chief of the planning and programs staff at the bureau’s Office of Science and Technology. Lyimo also had to break down cultural barriers that separated two competing IT planning branches at ATF.