Rung to leave OFPP for Amazon

Anne Rung, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator and U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer, will be moving to Seattle to work as the head of Amazon Bu...

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

September 16, 2016 11:58 am

4 min read

Anne Rung, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator and U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer, is leaving government.

Multiple sources and the Office of Management and Budget confirmed Rung is leaving her role. Sources say Rung will stay on at OFPP until at the end of September and then head to Seattle to become the global leader of the public sector division for Amazon Business, where she will run its strategic supplier program focusing on the government.

“In her two years at OMB, and before that at the Department of Commerce and at the General Services Administration, Anne has been a driving force in implementing the President’s vision for a modern, more efficient, and more effective government,” said Shaun Donovan, OMB’s director in a note to staff. “Anne has consistently advanced innovative and effective policies that are making the federal supply chain more effective, efficient, climate-smart, and socially responsible.”

Donovan highlighted several of Rung’s accomplishments, including saving taxpayers more than $2.1 billion by reducing duplication and fragmentation in government purchasing, strengthening the workforce by launching the first-ever Digital IT Acquisition Professional Training program to teach contracting officers how to buy IT better; and bringing greater innovation and efficiency to federal contracting through the creation of such tools as the TechFAR and the establishment of the Acquisition Innovation Advocates Council to institutionalize new and innovative practices.

The Senate confirmed Rung to run OFPP in September 2014. She replaced Joe Jordan, who is now CEO of FedBid.

Rung came to OFPP from the General Services Administration, where she was chief acquisition officer and associate administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Policy. She also worked at the Commerce Department from 2010 to 2012, where she was senior director of administration.

“We are thrilled to have Anne Rung be joining Amazon Business on Nov. 1 as global leader, public sector. Her strong leadership and deep knowledge of public sector procurement will help her build upon the progress Amazon Business has made in better serving public sector customers. We look forward to having Anne on-board,” said Prentis Wilson, vice president of Amazon Business.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Rung spent her career at the state government level, serving as deputy secretary for procurement and administration for Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services (DGS).

Rung’s decision to leave government at this time didn’t surprise most industry acquisition experts, but some did express shock that she decided to go to Amazon.

Obama administration political appointees and career staff have carved out a nice trail to Amazon. Rung would be the fourth high-profile official to go to the company, joining former GSA officials Lena Trudeau, who is the head of public sector for Canada, and Frank DiGiammarino, who is a general manager of U.S. state and local government. Scott Renda, a former OMB policy analyst, also joined Amazon Expansion as a senior product manager.

During her time as OFPP administrator, Rung focused heavily on changing the way agencies buy products and services through category management. She spearheaded the creation of category managers across 10 commodity areas as well as the implementation of the Acquisition Gateway run by the General Services Administration.

Rung made less progress around her two other named priorities: stronger vendor relationships and the acquisition workforce.

She initiated a 360-degree review of the acquisition process, but the results from those initial efforts haven’t been made public.

Most federal experts have said that OFPP’s vendor engagement priority hasn’t been as strong as they hoped. And vendors are especially frustrated with the spate of executive orders from the Obama administration around fair pay and workplace safety, minimum wage and several others.

To her credit, Rung has been one of the most collaborative OFPP administrators in recent memory, working closely with Federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott on several IT acquisition memos.

Rung and Scott signed off on four memos in fiscal 2016 focusing on category management around how agencies buy laptops and desktop computers, software purchasing and mobile devices and services. Rung and Scott also collaborated closely on implementing the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and digital services training.