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GCN Home > 05/2/05 issue

Go with the grain

By William Jackson, GCN Staff

Passion, not technical expertise, drives USDA modernization

Chris Niedermayer did not have his eyes on the Agriculture Department’s CIO office when he joined the department 28 years ago.

“I never thought I would end up here,” he said. “I am not a technical guy, I’m really a programmatic person. But it really is the right kind of fit.”

Niedermayer is USDA’s associate CIO for enterprise planning, project and information management. His forte, he said, is recognizing opportunities and charting a course to the value they offer.

“Business is 90 percent” of his job, he said. “IT has no value whatsoever if you can’t help people carry out their missions.”

That understanding is Niedermayer’s strength as an IT manager, said Chris Durney, mentor and longtime friend.

“He is exceptionally savvy about the difference between information and information technology,” said Durney, who heads the change management and training practice of ICF Consulting Group Inc. of Fairfax, Va. “He understands how to use technology in getting people to think about information.”

Since moving into the CIO suite in 2001, Niedermayer has been instrumental in developing USDA’s eGovernment Strategic Plan, launching the department’s Web portal, implementing an enterprisewide e-authentication service and establishing the AgLearn online training system. USDA is involved in 21 of the 25 e-government programs.

Niedermayer began his career as a grain inspector for a private company in Iowa. In 1976 USDA set new standards to beef up inspections of U.S. grain exports.

“They offered licensed grain inspectors the job,” Niedermayer said, and in 1977 he went to Galveston, Texas, as a USDA inspector.

By 1981 he was working with the Federal Grain Inspection Service at USDA headquarters in Washington. His introduction to IT came when he moved to the Stabilization and Conservation Service, which oversaw large loan programs.

“In a couple of years, I ended up in charge of the loan program,” he said. “I was part of a team that tried to automate it. I learned a lot in that process.”

On the trail

He learned enough to become a Trail Boss in the federal program established in 1988 to develop a cadre of IT executives to oversee complex IT systems over a 15-year modernization program.

He spent a lot of time trouble-shooting Agriculture’s disaster relief programs in offshore U.S. possessions such as American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

More news on related topics: IT in Action



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