Paul Courtney SES (invited)

Paul Courtney was appointed as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) on August 15, 2021. In his capacity as the Senior Procurement Executive, Mr. Courtney is responsible for the management direction of the acquisition system of DHS, including implementation of the unique acquisition policies, regulations, and standards of the agency. He oversees the work of ten Heads of Contracting Activity that provide operational procurement services to DHS components, directorates, and offices. Mr. Courtney joined DHS as the agency’s Deputy CPO in June, 2019. Mr. Courtney was a member of the Senior Executive Service from 2013 to 2019 with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and served as Head of Contracting Activity and Procurement Executive. In this role, Mr. Courtney led the FBI's contracting officers, and the FBI's acquisition of approximately $4 billion in goods and services. He ensured the FBI's law enforcement and national security mission was accomplished efficiently and effectively. During his FBI tenure, he led an acquisition business transformation effort which established a category management structure and numerous enterprise contracts. The effort eliminated the lowest price technically accepted contracting method for services, standardized business processes, and created one way of doing business with the FBI. Mr. Courtney served as the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Senior Expert for Contracting, and the Deputy Head of the Contracting Activity from 2007 to 2013. In his role at DIA, he was responsible for planning, managing, directing, and accomplishing the complete DIA procurement program, and its mission to provide timely intelligence to the warfighter. Mr. Courtney began his career in contracting as a contract specialist trainee in the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). During his time at the BOP, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including overseeing the contracting offices responsible for a multi-billion dollar construction program and a multi-billion dollar private prison program.