When Hord Tipton became CIO of the U.S. Dept. of Interior, he knew he would be wrestling with some daunting IT issues, especially in security. In fact, the Dept. was reeling from a December 2001 court order that disconnected all Interior systems from the Internet. That order resulted in a multi-million lawsuit brought by beneficiaries of Individual Indian Trust accounts held by the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, based in part on hackers burrowing into the Trust's accounts.

By making a good case for business systems security, Tipton managed to convince the Interior's officials to increase the $4 million annual IT network and security budget to $100 million. Tipton and his staff spent the next four years upgrading systems security and getting all of the Interior's systems reconnected to the Internet. Tipton even gave his IT staff one year to become certified in security. When he received a lot of staff resistance to his challenge, the 60-year old Tipton did something unusual for a CIO. He became a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. This certification matched the job at hand.

Under Tipton's leadership, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior established sound IT security policies and guidelines, and initiated testing and IT security training programs throughout the agency. Now retired from government service, Tipton is a board member of ISC2, the organization that oversees the CISSP exam and maintains the credentialing process.

Bio
W. Hord Tipton is the former chief information officer for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is now a board member for ISC2, the organization that maintains the certified information security engineering professional exam and credentialing process. In January 2007, he retired from the government to become president of Ironman Technologies. He previously served as CIO in the Bureau of Land Management's Energy and Minerals, and Resource Use and Protection. He also served as state director for the Bureau of Land Protection, director for offshore minerals and international affairs for the Minerals Management Service, and as acting director of the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement. Tipton holds a master's degree in engineering administration from the University of Tennessee. He received the President's Meritorious Service Rank Award and the Silver Executive Leadership Award from the Secretary of the Interior.

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio  Producer
5AlarmMusic.com  Production Music  Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production

To provide end-to-end IT services and business processing outsourcing solutions for Global 2000 companies, UST Global has a customer-centric global engagement model that combines local and off-sites resources with the cost, scale, and quality advantages of off-shore operations. This customer-centric model forms the core of the company's values of how it operates and how it serves customers. Tony Velleca, UST Global's CIO says that the company strives to build a long-lasting strategic relationship with each customer. "We empower our employees to provide value beyond what's outlined in a customer contract."

A project portfolio management system provides the technology underpinning for the customer engagement model. Velleca says, "We can have as many as 660 projects going at the same time." The system Velleca deployed enables UST Global's personnel to prioritize company projects, and to improve the performance of those projects, while reducing their costs. He says, "Because we know which projects won't meet customers' objectives, we can take the approprate action."

The industry-leading expertise found within UST Global's centers of excellence concept plays another key role in the customer engagement process. The CoEs deliver pragmatic IT solutions that allow UST Global to consistently achieve its most critical business objectives. Complementing the CoEs, the partner programs aim to develop strategic relationships with key technology organizations, which can provide UST developers with access to new technology and educational resources.

KPMG has certified UST Global as an SEI-CMMI and PCMM Level 5 company. Velleca says, "We've adopted Six Sigma for developing our customer-facing processes. Our centers in India are ISO 27001 certified. These quality practices provide a foundation for all of our services, and also to provide internal benefits to our customers."

Bio
Tony Velleca is CIO of UST Global, an end-to-end IT services and BPO solutions for Global 2000 companies. He oversees UST Global's corporate systems, project portfolio management, and the quality assurance for the infrastructure. Before joining UST Global, Velleca was the founder and chief technology officer at huddle247, which developed a virtual workspace solution given high marks by PC Magazine. He worked for The Boeing Company (previously McDonnell Douglas) for 10 years. He has received a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA, with honors, from the University of California, Irvine.

Resources
UST Opens Employees' Eyes to New Learning

UST Announces Expansion Plans

Forrester Research Podcast About UST

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish Host and Audio Producer
5AlarmMusic.com  Production Music Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production