- Former New York City Commissioner for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
- Former New York City Chief Information Officer
- Former Internal Revenue Service Chief Information Officer
Key Areas of Expertise:
- IT Strategic Planning
- IT Portfolio Management
- IT Consolidation/Cost Reduction at all levels of Government
After 37 years of line management IT Experience, Paul J. Cosgrave became a Senior Fellow at the Center in April 2010.
Throughout his career in both the public and private sectors, Paul has devoted his efforts to using the power of technology to make people and the organizations they serve more effective.
Prior to joining the Center, he was appointed New York City Commissioner for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on June 14, 2006. Also serving as the City's CIO, Commissioner Cosgrave was committed to ensuring that City services are accessible, transparent, and accountable to all New Yorkers. He led a number of efforts aimed at creating a more open government structure for the entire City, including expanding broadband services to all NYC constituents and leading the City's first-ever open competition for application development.
Among his accomplishments at DoITT is PlanIT: Better Government through Customer Service, the City’s first-ever comprehensive technology strategy for coordinated, effective and efficient citywide IT implementation. With an overarching theme of customer service, PlanIT changed the focus of e-government to that which first and foremost serves the constituent.
Prior to his appointment, Commissioner Cosgrave served as the Executive Vice President for Crown Consulting, Inc., where he directed an Enterprise Architecture team to design the overall structure of the Next Generation Air Transportation System for the Federal Aviation Administration. Before that, he worked with Federal Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on the formation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
From 1998 to 2001, he served as Chief Information Officer at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where he managed an organization with an annual budget of $1.6 billion and a staff of 7,900. There he led a major restructuring and centralization of information systems. During his tenure at the IRS, he also facilitated the largest civilian Y2K conversion effort ($1.3 billion) and worked on designing a multi-billion dollar strategic modernization program aimed at improving core processing capabilities, streamlining operations, and introducing e-commerce services to taxpayers.
Prior to joining the IRS, Commissioner Cosgrave was the Chairman, President and CEO of the Claremont Technology Group, a start-up IT Company that he took public in 1996. He also served as a Managing Partner at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he worked for nineteen years.
Recently, in 2009, Commissioner Cosgrave received the following recognitions:
- Computerworld: Premier 100 IT Leaders
- Information Week: Top 50 Public Sector CIOs
- Government Technology: Top 25 Government Doers, Dreamers & Drivers
- NY State: Finalist Top State CIO
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Alumni Key Award
- Sigma Chi Fraternity: Significant Sig Award
Commissioner Cosgrave earned a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has served as Executive Board member for the Information Technology Association of America (now TechAmerica), has served on the Board of Directors for three separate public IT companies (Cognizant, Claremont Technology, and Technology Solutions) and served as a Trustee of the Arthur Andersen Retirement Plan. He currently serves on three not-for-profit Boards of Directors, including the Rensselaer Alumni Association where he is the Treasurer and President-elect. He is a native New Yorker, born in Flushing, Queens, and is the father of three grown children. He resides with his wife, Charlene, in Florida.
