18F Executive Director Leaves Role for Another Position in GSA

As of Oct. 13, Aaron Snow will no longer be executive director of 18F.

Snow, who co-founded the digital services outfit in 2014, is staying within the General Services Administration. But he’s moving upward, and will now serve as a senior advisor to the commissioner of the Technology Transformation Service that oversees 18F, according to an internal memo GSA Administrator Denise Roth sent out to the organization’s staff.

V. David Zvenyach, 18F’s director of acquisition management, will serve as interim executive director.

In the memo, Roth praised the job Snow has done in nurturing the startup-styled agency from infancy.

“Perhaps no one has been more instrumental in establishing this organization than Aaron Snow,” she wrote. “One of the first Presidential Innovation Fellows, Aaron was one of the key contributors in building on this successful program to create 18F, and has served as its executive director for the past year.”

18F grew out of the White House’s partnership with Silicon Valley experts to fix HealthCare.gov after it crashed upon launching in 2013. It operates as a consultancy to federal agencies and sub-federal government entities that have won federal dollars to buy and build technology products and services.

The agency has worked to cut down the costs of procurement contracts and outsource some jobs to freelancers — a model that has conflicted at times with the traditional way of doing business within the Federal Acquisition Service.

The Technology Transformation Service, established in May, is currently without a permanent commissioner. David Shive, the GSA’s chief information officer, has served as acting commissioner since Phaedra Chrousos left the position in July. The new commissioner will appoint a permanent executive director for 18F.