Steve Cooper is the CIO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, responsible for the information technology architecture used by 35,000 air traffic controllers to safely direct more than 7,000 takeoffs and landings per hour and more than 660 million passengers per year.

Previously, he served as DHS’ first CIO from 2003 to 2005, leaving in May of that year to join the Red Cross. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he worked side-by-side with many of his former government colleagues to coordinate emergency response and relief efforts.

“One lesson learned is that we are taking a look at a lot of applications and the information technology capability to better ascertain the scale to handle something the scope and scale of Katrina,” he told ExecutiveBiz in 2005. “We were hard-pressed to handle all the spontaneous volunteers, for example. An awful lot of people wanted to help. While we have a very well known process, we have a lot of trained volunteers. We were a bit overwhelmed by the spontaneous volunteers.”

After leaving the Red Cross, he went on to found Strativest LLC, a management and investment consulting services firm, in 2007.  After two years as a founding partner, he resigned in September of 2009 to take on his current role as CIO of ATO.