ACT-IAC Small Business Alliance: Straight Talk with Richard Young

Join the ACT-IAC Small Business Alliance on Wednesday, November 9th for Straight Talk featuring Richard Young. Mr. Young serves as the CIO of the United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Services. During this presentation Richard will discuss the mission of USDA FAS, the direction of USDA FAS IT initiatives and the role that small businesses can take in helping the agency achieve it's mission. He will provide pointers to help small businesses better understand what the USDA is looking for and areas that small businesses can improve.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Richard Young, is the current Chief Information Officer of the United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service. Mr. Young accepted this position January, 2015. Prior to this role, he served as the director of IT policy and compliance at the Department of Homeland Security,

At DHS, Young was responsible for IT policy development and oversight of the department's $5.6 billion IT portfolio. His mission was to oversee IT investments and resources for compliance with Office of Management and Budget policies, federal laws and DHS's internal policies and goals. Among Young's most notable accomplishments at DHS are his policy development efforts around digital government, enterprise architecture, mobility, portfolio management, IT security and information sharing. Young played a critical role in getting DHS' CIO Policy 142-02 passed at the department's enterprise level, giving the agency's CIO the much-needed authority to oversee and manage all DHS IT systems. That policy also gave the CIO enterprise wide hiring authority for key IT positions.

Young's other DHS assignments included deputy director of enterprise system application delivery and quality assurance, as well as a stint at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he managed enterprise data warehousing, automated screening and targeting, cross-domain sharing, and business intelligence.

Prior to DHS, Young served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard.