Microsoft federal names a CTO — a chief transition officer

NOTE: Item updated on Dec. 8, 2008. The addition is also in italics.

Microsoft federal’s Teresa Carlson has created a new job — a CTO. No, not a chief technology officer, but a chief transition officer within Microsoft federal. The person heading up that post is Carolyn K. Brubaker, who has been with Microsoft federal for several years.

Carlson told me that the job will look at the priorities of the new administration and then map them Microsoft federal’s products and services. The goal is to ensure that the software giant remains focused on the needs of its customer.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Microsoft federal is the first in a trend of organizations that focus on what transition means to them — and their customers. I have heard a lot of companies churning about what the much discussed “change you can believe in” will mean.

Update: We had Brubaker on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. You can hear that interview here.

A correction… and a even bigger congratulations to Microsoft’s Teresa Carlson

Over the weekend, I posted about Microsoft promotions. Unfortunately, I had heard word about Teresa Carlson’s promotion and the… well, I just got it wrong. (And no, I’m not linking to an incorrect item. Well, OK. You can read the incorrect item here. In the interest of transparency, I have not deleted it. Instead, I have made it clear that I was in error and I have directed people to this post, which is correct. As I mention there, I didn’t have a formal DorobekInsider correction policy — how would I deal with mistakes when we make them — because we will make them. I will have one and I will post it by the end of the week.)

That being said, a very big congratulations to Teresa Carlson.

In fact, Carlson is going to lead all of Microsoft’s federal government business. She replaces Curt Kolcun, who was promoted in July to be vice president of Microsoft federal’s parent division, Microsoft’s Public Sector business group.

Here is the real release — dated today, I might add.

Microsoft Promotes Carlson to Lead Federal Government Business

Moves to V.P. Position after Managing Company’s Civilian Government Sector

Washington, D.C. – October 14, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. announced today that the company has promoted Teresa Carlson to Vice President for its U.S. federal government business. In this role, Carlson is responsible for all of Microsoft’s business focused on the U.S. federal government, including sales, contracting, pre-sales technical support, consulting services, and customer satisfaction. Carlson replaces Curt Kolcun, who was recently promoted to manage Microsoft’s entire U.S. Public Sector division, which in addition to the federal government, includes responsibilities for state and local government, as well as higher education and K-12 markets.

Carlson joined the company in 2002 as part of Microsoft Federal to start up and manage its Business Productivity unit. In that role, she led a team focused on delivering customer business value through a portfolio of business scenarios. She then was promoted to lead the U.S. Federal Solutions Unit where she created a comprehensive solutions framework that was introduced into the U.S. federal market place. Teresa was also responsible for Microsoft’s U.S. Federal partner channel, which consists of more than 2,500 Microsoft business partners.

In July 2005 Carlson became Microsoft Federal’s U.S. Director of Strategy and Operations, where she assisted in running the overall Federal business, in addition to developing new concepts, methods and strategies for working in the U.S. federal market. In 2006 she assumed responsibility for Microsoft’s U.S. Federal Civilian Agencies and International Global Organizations (IGOs) business. In this role, Carlson was responsible for sales, contracting, pre-sales technical support, customer satisfaction and performance.

Before joining Microsoft, Carlson was the Worldwide Vice President for marketing and business development for Lexign Inc., formerly Keyfile Corp., a software company focused on secure, end-to-end business transactions using XML and other technologies. Upon acquisition of three separate companies by Lexign, Carlson was responsible for the overall strategy, integration world-wide launch of the newly merged company.

Carlson is a native of Kentucky and holds an undergraduate as well as an M.S. degree in Communications, Speech and Language Pathology from Western Kentucky University. Carlson currently serves on the boards of the Bethesda, Md., chapter of AFCEA; AFFIRM; the American Red Cross; TIE-DC, and NPower.

I will reiterate what I said in the earlier post:

Carlson leads Microsoft’s strong federal team — a group of people who are passionate about helping the government accomplish it’s mission. Yes, they are also interested in helping Microsoft be successful, but…

I know Carlson fairly well. She has been a powerful force in helping the government establish the Federal Core Desktop Configuration. (Read Microsoft’s info about the FCDC here.) That is a case where the FCDC may have helped Microsoft, but… it is also an important piece of securing agency PCs… and it is a key part of the Bush administration’s stepped-up cyber-security initiative. It ends up that she did not win a Fed 100 award for her efforts — Shelly Bird, chief architect at Microsoft Consulting Services did, and, from what I have heard, deservedly so. But I have also had insiders tell me that this initiative never would have come to fruition without Carlson’s energy and efforts.

I think FCDC is an example where both government and industry can work together. It doesn’t always work out that ways, right?

Congratulations to Carlson. This is well deserved.

CORRECTED: Microsoft Federal promotes Carlson

Editor’s note: This post was… well, it was not correct. (You know, you can point these things out, right?) I had heard about Teresa Carlson’s promotion, but I couldn’t find the information out there. When I did, it was a link to information dated October 2007. So technically it was accurate, just not accurate for the time. In fact, Carlson has been promoted to lead Microsoft Federal. You can read about that here.

In the interest of transparency, I have made clear the error, but I am not just deleting the post… particularly because the information about A Salute to the Troops is still accurate — and important. And I’ll post about the DorobekInsider’s correction policy this week. Frankly, I didn’t have a formal one, but… I will now.

Kudos to three of Microsoft federal’s senior management team, which I heard about late last week but which Government Executive’s Tech Insider blog reports managed to write up first.

Teresa Carlson was named general manager of U.S. Government Civilian Agencies and International Global Organizations, and Brian Roach general manager of the Federal Department of Defense group. And Suzanne Behrens, former director of public sector marketing, was named general manager of the company’s Business Marketing Organization, handling public sector communications.

Microsoft has a powerful federal team — a group of people who are passionate about helping the government accomplish it’s mission. Yes, they are also interested in helping Microsoft be successful, but…
I know Carlson and Behrens fairly well, and I have met Roach several times. Carlson was a powerful force in helping the government establish the Federal Core Desktop Configuration. (Read Microsoft’s info about the FCDC here.) That is a case where the FCDC may have helped Microsoft, but… it is also an important piece of securing agency PCs… and it is a key part of OMB’s cyber-security initiative. She did not win a Fed 100 award for her efforts — Shelly Bird, chief architect at Microsoft Consulting Services did, and, from what I have heard, deservedly so. But I have also had insiders tell me that this initiative never would have come to fruition without Carlson’s energy and efforts.

I think FCDC is an example where both government and industry can work together. It doesn’t always work out that ways, does it?

I didn’t get a copy of the press release — in fact, I don’t see it posted anywhere — but… GovExec has it, so… I’m passing it along…

FOR RELEASEOctober 3, 2007

Microsoft Advances Three Leaders in its U.S. Public Sector Division

Behrens, Carlson, Roach Each Promoted to General Manager Positions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — October 3, 2007 — Microsoft Corporation has promoted three leaders of its U.S. Public Sector organization. The company named Suzanne Behrens , General Manager of its Business Marketing Organization; Teresa Carlson, General Manager of U.S. Government Civilian Agencies and International Global Organizations; and Brian Roach, General Manager for the Federal Department of Defense group.

Behrens served as director of the government division and most recently public sector marketing. As General Manager she will oversee Microsoft’s public sector marketing and communications efforts, breadth sales, as well as the organization’s citizenship efforts. She leads a team of professionals responsible for developing programs designed to identify business opportunities and facilitate Microsoft’s thought leadership across the public sector, including government and education. She joined Microsoft in 1996.

Carlson, who had served as U.S. director for strategy and operations, now leads the U.S. Government Civilian Agencies and International Global Organizations within the federal division and is responsible for defining the strategy and overseeing the execution of sales, customer satisfaction and performance of these business units. Carlson joined Microsoft in 2002. Roach, who had served as the Manager of Microsoft’s Federal Healthcare organization, now leads the U.S. Federal Department of Defense business unit and is responsible for defining the strategy and overseeing the execution of sales within the services, combatant commands, and Defense Agencies. Roach joined Microsoft in 1999.

Curt Kolcun, Vice President of Microsoft Federal, is the over all leader of the team. Last year, Federal Computer Week honored Kolcun with a Fed 100 award for his impassioned work helping veterans and USO. Kolcun spearheaded a remarkable event in New York — A Salute To Our Troops — held at Radio City Music Hall. I mention it because they are holding the second annual salute again in November.

Read more about the salute after the break.