Steve Cooper – President
Steve Cooper most recently served as a Senior Vice President and the CIO of Information Technology at the American Red Cross. Prior to joining the Red Cross Mr. Cooper was appointed by President Bush (Feb. 2003) to become the First CIO of the Department of Homeland Security. At DHS Steve and his team had responsibility for the information technology assets supporting 190,000 federal employees of the 22 agencies now comprising the new department. Their efforts focused on integrating new and existing sources of essential homeland security information via proven and emerging technologies and in full compliance with broader values of privacy, civil liberties and openness.
Prior to DHS Mr. Cooper was appointed by President Bush (March 2002) as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and served as Senior Director for Information Integration in the White House Office of Homeland Security. In this role, Cooper launched the development of the National Enterprise Architecture for Homeland Security to address information integration within the federal government and the sharing of homeland security information with local, state and relevant private sector entities. He fostered partnerships with local and state government and the private sector to assist local, state and federal initiatives focused on the sharing of law enforcement, public health and emergency services information. With James Flyzik, Senior Advisor to the Homeland Security Director and former CIO of the Treasury Department, he provided the input for Information Sharing and Systems to the National Strategy for Homeland Security.
Prior to federal government service, Cooper spent more than 20 years in the private sector as an Information Technology professional, most recently as CIO, Corporate Staffs, and Executive Director, Strategic Information Delivery, for Corning, Inc. in Corning, NY. Previously, he served as Director, Information Technology for Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, Ind. Cooper held several senior level technical and management positions with CSC, MAXIMA and CACI prior to forming his own consulting organization, Strategic Information Concepts.