Sonny Hashmi to depart GSA

The federal civilian government's top buyer is exiting his role at the end of the year.

Sonny Hashmi will step down as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service on December 29, 2023. FAS Deputy Commissioner Tom Howder will take over the top job on an acting basis, according to an agency announcement.

Hashmi, who won Federal 100 honors in 2013 while serving as GSA's chief information officer, led a reorganization of the FAS that deemphasized its legacy regional structure in favor of a more centralized approach.

"Our regional-based employees aren’t going away, but this shift to our structure will meet the growing demand from our customers that FAS respond holistically when it comes to contracting assistance," Hashmi said in a GSA blog post in September, when the reorganization was announced. 

Hashmi told Nextgov/FCW in an interview published earlier this month that reorganization was motivated by a desire to simplify customer service. 

“It became very clear quickly that the way we were organized… was actually getting in the way of us serving our customers,” he said. “Often times, our customers have had to navigate our internal organization structure before they could get service, and that’s unacceptable.” 

Hashmi said in a statement that he's "confident that FAS is better prepared than ever to meet the needs of both its federal partners, who require innovative products and services, as well as the Americans who depend on their government to deliver." 

He added that "it has been a true honor to help lead the Federal Acquisition Service, an entity that helps the world’s largest buyer get exactly what it needs to serve millions of Americans every day.” 

Hashmi told Nextgov/FCW he will be returning to the private sector, and said he would announce his new job next year. Hashmi has previously worked as managing director of global government for Box between 2015 and 2021, a role he started after serving as GSA's CIO. Before that, he held various posts at Xerox and IBM, and he served in technology management in the government of the District of Columbia.