Federal Spotlight: Lawrence Gross
Written by: Management Concepts
Federal Spotlight: Lawrence Gross retired recently from his role as Chief Information Officer, Chief Privacy Officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Here is our Federal Spotlight interview:
MC: How long were you in Federal service, and what were your main responsibilities and roles?
LG: I started my Federal career when I Joined the U.S. Navy in July 1976. Leaving active service in 1986, I joined the Naval Reserves (retiring from Naval Service in November 2000) and began my Federal civilian service. I’ve had the privilege to work across several different agencies, including Department of Treasury (DOT), Department of Energy (DOE), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Justice (DOJ) – to name a few. This past January, I brought my public service career to a close, retiring from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
MC: What kept you motivated and passionate to stay in the public sector?
LG: I have spent my entire adult life in service to this great nation. At the end of the day it has been about service and sense of accomplishment. Over the years I have been fortunate to assume leadership roles of increasing responsibility and taking on leadership roles in several government wide initiatives.
MC: What is one of your biggest achievements?
LG: In 2003, I was fortunate to be a member of the Quick Silver team with responsibility for leading government wide initiatives designed to implement the President’s Management Agenda for E-Government. I held leadership roles in a number of these initiatives, however the one that I look at that had the broadest impact and was the most satisfying was the Financial Management Line of Business initiative. The goal of the initiatives was to work with agencies to migrate to a common “Shared Service – Financial Management solution”. Specifically, this required working with all the CFO Act Agencies and facilitate the retirement of their own financial management solutions and migrate to a common shared service solution.
As a result of this initiative numerous agencies retired their internal legacy systems and migrated to several shared service solutions resulting in savings and increased operational efficiency and effectiveness across the Federal government. I was able to see tangible measurable outcomes from my efforts and realized that through leadership other initiatives similar in nature had the potential to be successful with similar results.
Click here, to learn more about the strategy: Implementing the President’s Management Agenda for E-Government.
Additionally, I have had the honor to be recognized in the following civilian awards:
- Federal 100 Award
- Presidential Award for Leading Federal Financial Management Line of Business Initiative
- Department of Energy, Secretary’s Award for Leadership in Electronic Government
- United States Department of Justice, Attorney General’s Award
MC: What advice would you share with the next generation of leaders on entering government?
LG: Be bold, take the initiative. Seek every opportunity to work outside of your area of expertise and comfort zone to increase the tools in your personal and professional tool basket.
Interestingly enough, I started in the U.S. Navy as an E1, this is the lowest rank that can be held, and rose to the level of a Command Chief Petty Officer. In this role I was the senior enlisted at the command responsible for providing leadership and direction of all enlisted personnel at the command and served as the command representative to the commanding officer on all enlisted personnel matters. Upon leaving active duty and entering Federal, I began my Federal service as a GS 7, ultimately becoming a member of the Federal, Senior Executive Service. In this capacity, I held various positions at a number of Cabinet/CFO Act agencies as well as my final position as a Corporate Executive at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Continue to stay engaged, maintain a positive attitude, and work hard – keep tackling challenges and the opportunities will present themselves.
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