The Biden Administration has appointed new General Services Administration (GSA) officials to spearhead key initiatives, including COVID-19 relief, economic recovery, racial equity and climate, GSA reported on Wednesday.
Of the appointments, Katy Kale, former assistant to the President for Management and Administration under President Obama and GSA Chief of Staff, will be the deputy administrator and will serve as the acting administrator.
During the first term of the Obama Administration, Kale served as the deputy assistant to the President for Management and Administration and the special assistant to the President and Director of White House Operations.
She also served as the director of Operations for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Before her tenure with the Obama Administration, Kale served in the U.S. Senate for nearly a decade. With the Senate, she focused her efforts on operational and legislative issues.
Sonny Hashmi, former chief information officer of GSA, will be the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) commissioner under Biden’s Administration. Hashmi will join the agency from Box, where he served as managing director of Global Government. With the company, he is responsible for marketing, brand and product strategy.
Hashmi began his career with GSA as deputy CIO and chief technology officer, where he supervised the agency’s Technology Portfolio as part of the Office of the Chief Information Officer Executive team. As CIO with GSA, managed GSA’s approximate $540 million annual IT investment portfolio.
In addition to the appointments of Kale and Hashmi, Biden’s team named nine additional appointments, including:
- Dave Zvenyach will be the director of Technology Transformation Services (TTS)
- Brett Prather will serve as Chief of Staff.
- Sonal Larsen will be senior advisor on Climate.
- Jacky Chang will be a senior advisor on technology.
- Nitin Shah will be General Counsel.
- Gianelle Rivera will be the associate administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs.
- Teressa Wykpisz-Lee will be the associate administrator of the Office of Strategic Communications.
- Amy Chiou will lead community engagement.
- Krystal Brumfield will be the Associate Administrator of the Office of Government-Wide Policy.