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Just a quick post to congratulate my good friend Robert "Bob" Brese on receiving the Secretary of Energy's Honor Award for Excellence.  This tremendous honor is bestowed annually to three leaders within the Department of Energy and anyone who knows Bob can attest to how deserving he is of this recognition.  Not only is he a true visionary with tremendous talent, but his humility, dedication and ability to make everyone feel like a peer make him one of the most beloved members of the Federal IT Community and DOE.  With Bob's permission, I've included the text from a letter he wrote to the DOE IT Department about his recognition... its is a great message and a great example of the sincerity and humility Bob is know for.  

CONGRATULATIONS BOB, AND WELL DESERVED! 

(Below this photo of Bob with Energy Secretary Chu is the letter from Mr. Brese to the DOE OCIO Team)

OCIO Team,

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of receiving the Secretary’s Award for Excellence. I am both honored and humbled by this recognition. It is a tribute to each and every one of you, as well as the many men and women across the DOE headquarters and working at our national laboratories and field sites. The award is a crystal trophy. I find this to be symbolic of what it takes to earn the award. Glass begins as a pile of sand, the grains of which are little organized or singularly impressive. However, during the glassmaking process, the grains transform, the less useful parts of the sand are removed, and the silica forms a clear substance that can be used in thousands of ways and has many unique and extremely valuable properties. Glass also has no crystalline structure. Instead of individual crystals linking arms, the material is amorphous and continuous. I see the OCIO transforming similarly. Becoming one. One in vision, one in purpose and one great team working together to achieve great things for the DOE and for our country.

The citation accompanying the award reads, “In recognition of his contributions and leadership as a change agent to transform the way the Department of Energy does business. Mr. Brese advises the Department’s most senior executives on critical matters of national security and information management and the impacts of the way the Agency does, and should conduct its business. Specifically, he established new, productive relationships with the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House National Security Staff to resolve key legal, policy and process issues related to the implementation of IT and cybersecurity within DOE’s unique mission. He is a lynch-pin in the way that our intelligence, nuclear security and mission organizations routinely communicate and share information to enable the work of DOE. Mr. Brese also revolutionized the intensity in which DOE communicates with others in the Executive Branch, across Federal agency working groups and with industry leaders. He created a new partnership with the Offices of Intelligence & Counterintelligence and Health, Safety and Security to integrate the approach to cybersecurity risk management. He also reduced the cost of NNSA headquarters IT operations by over $2M annually and reduced enterprise risk in its IT portfolio by over $50M.”

The award is currently sitting in the CIO front office. I hope you will take pride in OUR award and I enjoy knowing that there is a piece of each and every one of you in the words above and in the grains of sand that became this glass trophy. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you do each and every day to serve our office, the DOE and our country!

Best,

Bob