Dan Tangherlini Nominated to Become Head of GSA

Photograph of Tangherlini courtesy of GSA.

While he’s effectively been in the job for a year,
Dan Tangherlini on Wednesday moved one step closer to becoming the official head of the General Services
Administration. In a White House statement, President
Barack Obama announced that he plans to nominate Tangherlini as administrator of GSA. He became
“acting” administrator at the beginning of April 2012.

Tangherlini is well known in Washington, where he served mayors
Anthony Williams and
Adrian Fenty in several positions in the city government: CFO of the Metropolitan Police Department,
head of the Department of Transportation, acting head of the Washington Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority, and city administrator. When he left the city government in
2009, he became assistant secretary and CFO at the Treasury Department. Though a Massachusetts
native, he talks fondly of his connections to Chicago, which is President Obama’s hometown.
He has two degrees from the University of Chicago and a masters from the Wharton School
at the University of Pennsylvania.

When he arrived at GSA, Tangherlini had his work cut out for him. The agency had been
rocked by the sensational Las Vegas spending scandal that cost his predecessor and others
their jobs. He said it was his mandate to get GSA back in shape and reorganized. According
to his office, he started a “top to bottom review” to make the agency “a model of
transparency, accountability, and good government.”

Occasionally there have been rumors that Tangherlini might return to DC government,
and possibly even run for mayor. He’s always shot them down as quickly as they came
up.

Tangherlini’s office said he would not have any comment until after confirmation,
a process that is expected to start soon.

Carol Ross Joynt