Bernard Mazer Selected as Interior Chief Information Officer

WASHINGTON, DC -- Bernard J. Mazer has been selected to serve as the Department of the Interior's Chief Information Officer, effective June 7, 2010. Before joining the Department, he served as the Chief Information Officer for one of its agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where he aligned regulatory and information technology infrastructure to support strategic wildlife habitat and conservation initiatives.

“Bernie brings to this position more than twenty-five years of invaluable government and private business experience in the field of information technology and communications,” said Andrew Jackson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology, Information and Business Services. “As a result of his leadership at the FWS, the delivery of IT resources continued to improve in spite of budgetary pressures and an ever-increasing workload.”

According to Jackson, Mazer's 16 years experience in project management and 10 plus years experience in program development will help him tackle complex and challenging projects to move the Department's IT agenda forward. “We will build common, Department-wide IT enterprise services with an emphasis on innovation, cost efficiencies and customer satisfaction,” Jackson said.

As Chief Information Officer for the FWS, Mazer improved and streamlined the bureau's IT capital investment review, empowered the Chief Technology Officer Council with management of information and technology standards, and began to create a true IT service catalog. Before his appointment to the FWS in 2008, Mazer served at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID ) as deputy director and chief of the Information Communications and Technology team located within the Infrastructure and Engineering Office in the Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade Bureau. At USAID, he provided technical leadership and field support to USAID missions overseas in the areas of energy, information and communications technology, and engineering services. He also was involved in the development of IT security best practices and led the implementation of procedures for Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) of IT investments through the rigorous application of project management principles.

Previously, Mr. Mazer worked in the Department of Defense in information management and telecommunications in the United States, Europe and Southwest Asia. He served as a Community Director of Information in Europe where he was responsible for automation, communications, IT security and privacy, records management and the Freedom of Information Act.

Before his service at DOD, Mazer was an instructor for the University of Maryland, European Division, where he taught information management courses on such topics as relational databases, operating systems, and business process design. He also worked in the deployment of standardized installation support systems for the US Army. Mazer, a certified Project Management Professional, has a Master's Degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and a Master's Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.

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