Steve Cooper serves as the chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
He leads the development and implementation of the Department’s enterprise-wide IT strategy and operations, oversees the building and operation of the enterprise IT security risk program and serves as an adviser on mission and business IT systems and services.
Prior to joining Commerce, Cooper served the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as acting deputy assistant administrator for information services and CIO. Previously, he was IT director and CIO of FAA’s air traffic organization.
Earlier in his career, President George W. Bush appointed him as the first CIO of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and prior to that, as special assistant to the President for homeland security and senior director for information integration in the White House Office of Homeland Security.
In between his service at DHS and the FAA, Cooper served as senior vice president of IT and CIO of the American Red Cross, where he led the introduction and use of a national call center to provide emergency financial assistance during Hurricane Katrina.
Cooper also has more than 20 years of private sector experience, including as partner and founding member of Strativest, LLC, CIO of corporate staffs at Corning, Inc., IT director at Eli Lilly and Company, among others.
Cooper was named one of the Top 100 CIO’s in America by CIO Insight in 2007, a recipient of the Fed 100 Award and was named by the Washington Post as one of the Five to Watch while serving in the White House.
A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Cooper was honorably discharged as a U.S. Naval Air Reserve petty officer in 1984.