GSA’s new leadership mostly comes from tech, finance sectors

Originally published GSA’s new leadership mostly comes from tech, finance sectors on January 21, 2025 03:43 by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2025/01/gsas-new-leadership-mostly-comes-from-tech-finance-sectors/ at Federal News Network

The General Services Administration has new leadership already in place on day one of the Trump administration.

Stephen Ehikian is the new deputy administrator and acting administrator of GSA, according to a screenshot of an email Federal News Network obtained.

Separately, Federal News Network has learned Larry Allen, a long-time GSA expert, will be named associate administrator of the Office of Governmentwide Policy.

Ehikian also announced six other key political roles, including naming Josh Gruenbaum as the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, Mike Peters as the commissioner of the Public Building Service and Thomas Shedd as the director of the Technology Transformation Service and deputy FAS commissioner.

“I know the critical importance of our agency’s mission and look forward to meeting you in the weeks ahead to carry out that mission together,” Ehikian wrote in the email. “Effective immediately, the GSA is recommitting itself to its founding purpose: ensure governmentwide efficiency and maximizing value for the American taxpayer.”

He said GSA will do that by adhering to six principles:

• Building a culture of performance and accountability across the federal government and contracting corps.
• Eliminating every dollar of waste, fraud and abuse across the federal budget and operations.
• Embracing best-in-class technologies to accelerate digital transformation and modernize IT infrastructure.
• Committing to the principles of competition that make America’s economy the most dynamic in the world, including merit-based and impartial awarding of government contracts.
• Championing Made in America policies that support American jobs and workers.

In a separate email, Ehikian offered more details about where GSA is heading next.

“From managing a vast real estate portfolio to streamlining procurement, driving digital transformation and optimizing administrative services, the GSA has historically been a model of efficiency. However, in recent years, priorities have shifted from efficiency to ideology, and the agency has strayed from its mission and foundational ethos,” he wrote. “It is time to return the GSA to its core purpose: making government work smarter and faster, not larger and slower. Moving forward, GSA will be laser focused on driving an efficient government and enabling our sister agencies to provide better service to taxpayers at lower costs.”

To that end, Ehikian outlined five broad themes for how GSA will align with President Trump’s priorities.

More specifically, GSA says:

• We will partner with the White House to move parts of the federal government out of Washington, D.C., relocating agency components to leased or owned facilities in other regions to distribute economic opportunity and reduce reliance on D.C.
• Consistent with White House and agency policy, we will be prepared to welcome federal employees back to the office to improve collaboration, accountability and service delivery to the American people.
• We will champion American workers, innovation, and businesses. At the same time, we will remove extremist Green New Deal and ESG (environmental, social and governance) requirements from federal building construction, leasing and procurement to prioritize economic efficiency over ideological mandates.
• DEI, ESG, and climate change mandates imposed on GSA contractors will be eliminated to maximum extent feasible, fostering a fairer and more competitive procurement process.
• We will right-size the federal office portfolio by accelerating the disposition of underutilized and inefficient buildings, reducing capital liabilities and moving federal operations into more modern and appropriately sized spaces. This will save the taxpayers billions and improve operational efficiency at tenant agencies.
• We will improve transparency, accountability, and integrity within GSA and forge stronger partnerships across the federal government, with legislators in Congress, and with our vendors, contractors, and contract counterparties.

“To the dedicated employees of the GSA: THANK YOU for your service. You are the driving force behind this transformation. Your expertise, diligence, and commitment to excellence will enable us to reclaim the GSA’s reputation as a model of efficiency and responsibility,” Ehikian wrote. “Together, we will create an organization that is leaner, smarter and relentlessly focused on our customers across the government and the ultimate stakeholder, the American taxpayer. Moving forward, we will establish a reward structure designed to align and incentivize performance that drives progress toward our shared mission and goals.”

Additionally, Ehikian said Frank Schuler and Michael Lynch both will be senior advisors in the office of the administrator, while Rusty McGranahan will be the new general counsel.

Ehikian comes to GSA after spending his career in the private sector, according to his LinkedIn profile. He most recently was at Salesforce working on artificial intelligence products.

He also co-founded and was president of Airkit.ai for five years, which Salesforce bought in 2023 for $3.6 million.

Ehikian also had another company, RelateIQ, purchased by Salesforce in 2014 for $390 million.

Ehikian has a Master of Business Administration from Stanford and graduated from Yale with degrees in mechanical engineering and economics.

Gruenbaum comes to FAS after spending the last almost five years at KKR, a global investment firm where he was a director on the credit team.

This seems to be Gruenbaum’s first direct experience in the public sector, having worked in the private sector since graduating from the New York University law school and school of business where he received both his MBA and JD.

Details about Peters’ and Shedd’s backgrounds were not readily available.

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Originally published GSA’s new leadership mostly comes from tech, finance sectors on January 21, 2025 03:43 by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2025/01/gsas-new-leadership-mostly-comes-from-tech-finance-sectors/ at Federal News Network

Originally published Federal News Network