I was CTO of a high-tech firm in Northern Virginia, and then one day in early 2003 I got a call from Bill Pickle, the sergeant at arms for the U.S. Senate. He told me that the Senate was interested in raising its level of technological sophistication and wanted to know if I would be interested in being its first CIO. I thought about it for maybe a nanosecond. Contrary to some perceptions, the technology I found in the Senate is actually quite good. I’m responsible for technology vision, leadership and the general information infrastructure. I work with everyone from the network administrators at the 137 Senate offices to the senators themselves to make sure that everything is running the way it should. (Each of the 100 senators and 37 Senate committees and leadership offices are responsible for their own LANs.) It’s like running a mall in the sense that the stores have their own systems, but I need to provide the water and the electricity. The senators are very tech savvy. They have BlackBerrys and PDAs, and a couple of times a year I organize emerging technology conferences where vendors and industry leaders come to talk about technology trends and products. I’m interested in politics and I’m interested in history, but what attracted me to the job had more to do with the opportunity to serve. What I love about my job is the sense of honor and responsibility that comes with it. Sometimes I have to serve late-night duty and I get to walk around the Capitol at 9 or 10 when there’s nobody else here. During President Reagan’s funeral I escorted former President Bush and Mrs. Bush through the Capitol rotunda. These are special moments. —As told to Ben Worthen Related content News Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including some at AWS The latest round of Amazon layoffs will impact AWS, Twitch, advertising and PXT, CEO Andy Jassy said. By Jon Gold Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost What’s next for network operations Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Serge Lucio, Vice President and General Manager, Agile Operations Division Mar 20, 2023 8 mins IT Leadership Networking BrandPost Digital transformation obstacles: Stubborn challenges, what to do about them Value Stream Management is an increasingly essential approach to strategic transformation initiatives. To help teams more fully capitalize on the opportunities it presents, Broadcom is holding its third annual VSM Summit. By Marla Schimke, Head of Product and Growth Marketing, Broadcom's Enterprise Software Division Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Devops Software Development Feature CEO directives: Top 5 initiatives for IT leaders As organizations change course with economic gyrations, collaboration between IT and business becomes priority No. 1 for CEOs. By Stacy Collett Mar 20, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe