Patrick R. Schambach

atrick Schambach joined the Transportation Security Administration as chief information officer and chief technology officer in February 2002. By August, he had awarded a groundbreaking $1 billion contract for information-technology products and services to Unisys. The company enlisted more than 30 other firms, large and small, to be members of its team for the IT Managed Service Program. It covers the full range of TSA's hardware, software, communications, and cyber-security needs.

The deal is notable because the contractor's financial success is contingent not just on meeting its own delivery dates and product and services goals, but on meeting TSA's deadlines and performance goals as well. If both Unisys and the agency accomplish this, Unisys gets a bonus. But if the company fails to meet any of its goals-or if it does, but TSA doesn't-then Unisys pays money to TSA. Under Schambach's guidance, the agency has aggressively used acquisition reforms to speed purchases: The Unisys contract was announced in June and awarded in August, a model likely to be emulated throughout the Homeland Security Department.

For Schambach, the lack of an existing IT infrastructure at his agency has been both a blessing and a curse. He didn't have to work with deeply embedded but outdated technology, as happened in his previous IT management jobs with the U.S. Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. On the other hand, he has had to make every IT selection from scratch, without relying on precedent. One way he has dealt with the latter challenge is by deciding that all TSA systems will be Web-based. In addition, he is relying on commercial technology instead of custom-built systems.

Schambach, a 54-year-old native of Orange, N.J., spent more than 24 years with the Secret Service after graduating from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He also earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University with a concentration in information-systems management.