Presentation: Program Manager or Program Leader?
Abstract: In the Department of Defense, “cost, schedule, performance” technical competencies and adherence to a rigid list of requirements, usually developed years in advance, have created a culture of compliance and conformance in acquisition program offices. This culture is not aligned with today’s mission of delivering capabilities at the speed of relevance. Changing the culture requires leaders, not managers. Attend this presentation to understand how culture impacts results, how to align your culture with your mission, and what leadership attributes are required to change the culture in order to deliver results.
PMI Talent Triangle: Leadership
Biography: Eric Laurence Ferraro joined the Faculty at DAU in 2017 after having served at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) where he served in the CIO office as the Enterprise Information Systems Program Manager. Prior to NAVSEA, Mr. Ferraro served in the Senior Executive Service at the General Services Administration where he was the Assistant Commissioner for the Integrated Award Environment (IAE). He was the Accountable Executive for e-government shared services within the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), which included the operations and modernization of IAE (SAM.gov) and establishing the GSA’s Integrated Common Acquisition Platform to enable greater acquisition analytics capabilities, reduced system duplication, and greater use of user-centric design and expert decision support. He joined GSA in July of 2015 after ten years at the Department of the Navy, where he was the Program Manager for the Navy’s E- Business Systems in PEO-EIS, which included the Standard Procurement System (SPS) and Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) software systems which are two Department of Defense Enterprise systems used for contract writing and invoice receipt and acceptance. He also led the effort to improve E-Business System operations for the Navy as well as starting the program to replace SPS with a commercial off the shelf contract writing capability.
Prior to joining Federal service, Mr. Ferraro worked for IBM Business Consulting Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Consultant and project manager for seven years from 1998 to 2005. His primary responsibility was supporting the Navy’s Standard Procurement System implementations and operations. While working on SPS, Mr. Ferraro and his government counterparts logged over 100,000 miles traveling to the Navy and Marine Corps SPS sites around the country.
Mr. Ferraro is a retired Naval Supply Corps Officer. His sea duty tours were in USS SIMON BOLIVAR (SSBN 641) and USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69). Ashore assignments were at the Navy Food Service Systems Office, Washington DC; Office of the Secretary of the Navy; Naval Supply Center Norfolk, where he was the Director of Customer Services, the Director of the Operations Control Group and Director of Shipping Operations Division; and Commander, Submarine Force, U. S. Atlantic Fleet. His last assignment on active duty was at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as a Requirements Officer in OPNAV N62.
Mr. Ferraro graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University in Durham, NC. He has a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration from the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He is a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute and is DAWIA Level III certified in Project Management.
