ANN has received a copy of an internal FAA letter in which FAA Administrator Marion Blakey announces the appointment of their new CIO. As FAA's new CIO, David Bowen will be in charge of the FAA's IT strategy and the whopping $2 billion budget that this requires. We're working up some additional  details on this announcement, but for the moment the memo is reproduced below...

Dear Colleagues:
 
I am pleased to announce that after a lengthy search to fill the critical position of Chief Information Officer and Assistant Administrator for Information Services, we have found just the right candidate in David Bowen.
 
David comes to us from Blue Shield, one of the largest not-for-profit health plans in California, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. He replaces Dan Mehan, who left the FAA at the end of September 2005. On behalf of all of us, I also want to thank Walter Iwanow for serving as acting CIO in the interim. He has done an outstanding job in keeping us on course.
 
We are indeed fortunate to have someone of David Bowen's technical background and leadership skills. As Senior Vice President and CIO of Blue Shield for the past five years, he operated the company's IT department at more than 3 percent below budget, while improving the department's customer satisfaction scores. Among his cost-cutting measures, he negotiated and implemented a new IT contract, which saved Blue Shield over $7 million in operating expenses during its first year.
 
From 1998 to 2000, David was Senior Vice President for Information Management and CIO at Catholic Healthcare West, one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the US, with 48 hospitals in California, Arizona, and Nevada. There, too, he was successful in operating the Corporate Information Management department under budget. One of the steps he took to accomplish this was to consolidate Information Management resources into a single division, which consolidated capital and operating budgets.
 
Previously, David was Senior Vice President of Information Systems and CIO at Baptist Health Systems, Inc., and Director of Management Information Systems at Carillion Health Systems.
 
He earned a M.B.A. from Cornell University, and a B.S. undergraduate degree in Economics from Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. He also is a licensed CPA in Pennsylvania.
 
David will join the FAA on February 21st. I know you will give David the support and encouragement he needs as he takes on this challenging responsibility.
 
Marion Blakey, Administrator
Federal Aviation Administration

FMI: www.faa.gov