Andre Mendes

CIO, Department of Commerce

Federal Leadership of the Year

Commerce CIO Andre Mendes’ office completed the migration of wide area network links at the Herbert C. Hoover Building to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s N-Wave network and Trusted Internet Connection Access Provider capability in June, an aspirational item for the department for years. The department further “seamlessly” transitioned to 100% telework and within two weeks had help desk procedures in place for new hardware, he said. Still, Mendes can’t wait to eventually get back to the office in 2021. “I truly believe that the human in-person interactions that occur in an office building cannot be long term replaced by 100% telework,” he said. “It was necessary and well-executed, but we are missing a lot of the non-heuristic interactions that spark creativity, innovation and seamless collaboration.”