Former fed DiPentima wins second GCN honor
Renato A. DiPentima is no stranger to winning honors for his work in government technology.
By Patricia DaukantasGCN StaffRenato A. DiPentima is no stranger to winning honors for his work in government technology.Seven years after winning GCN's kudos for his systems leadership at the Social Security Administration, DiPentima received the 2000 industry executive of the year award for his ongoing work in industry.Since July 1995, DiPentima has been president of the government sector for SRA International Inc. of Arlington, Va.In 1993, GCN honored DiPentima, then deputy commissioner and chief information officer at SSA, as its civilian agency executive of the year.GCN publisher Scott Lewis called DiPentima the 'Frank Robinson of the marketplace,' after the outfielder who won professional baseball's most valuable player awards in both the American and National Leagues.'Whatever side of the equation we're on, industry or government, we all know what we do best is to make government work better and have a good time at it,' DiPentima said in his acceptance speech.SRA's government sector has four lines of business, ranging from health care and civilian agency projects to defense and intelligence systems.'Each of the different sectors, while they have many projects in common, tends to have their own variations that we find unique,' DiPentima said.Even within the health category, the company handles a variety of projects. For example, several years ago SRA International set up a standard data processing system for the Health Care Financing Administration. Now it's building cutting-edge bioinformatics databases and data-mining tools for the National Institutes of Health.The government sector is the largest component of SRA International's business. It has about 1,500 employees and brings in more than $260 million in annual revenue.DiPentima said he had joined SSA as a GS-5 claims representative right after graduating from New York University in 1963. Along the way, he earned a master's degree in policy sciences and economics from George Washington University and a doctorate in technology and public policy from the University of Maryland.DiPentima still professes a great love for the agency he spent 32 years serving. 'Notice all I had to do was change the 'SSA' to 'SRA' and I was all set,' he said after the banquet.Over the next year or two, providing security, privacy and authentication for transactions between citizens and government agencies will remain a hot topic, he predicted.'The 'killer app' is still e-mail,' DiPentima said. Agencies need to keep working on their archiving, storage and retrieval methods for handling vast volumes of e-mail under government public records laws.In one of its more newsworthy projects this year, SRA International has been one of two companies searching the Automated Records Management System for White House e-mail messages subpoenaed by the U.S. District Court in the Filegate case .DiPentima was jovial about his second visit to the GCN awards platform.'You've made me look good in front of my wife, my children, my boss and my friends all at the same time,' he said.
[GCN, June 12, Page 1]
SRA International's Renato DiPentima is recognized again for his contribution to federal IT.
[GCN, June 12, Page 1]
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