PICANSO JOINING VETERINARY SERVICES

News Date December 18, 2007

       Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp has announced that John Picanso is retiring from the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), effective December 31, 2007.  Picanso will be joining the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS), as their chief information officer.  The announcement from Veterinary Services Administrator John Clifford follows:
       "We are pleased to announce the selection of Mr. John Picanso as the VS CIO effective January 7, 2008. Mr. Picanso served as the chief information officer for the Colorado Department of Agriculture for nine years. His duties included leading technology development efforts in the areas of Homeland and Agro-security, preparedness and response, livestock disease surveillance, data collaboration and integration, and risk assessment and mitigation. Under his leadership at the Department of Agriculture, Picanso and his team were the recipients of the 2002 C.I.O Award for "Enterprise Integration", and the 2002 Infoworld 100 Award for implementing web services within the enterprise. In 2003 the Colorado Information Managers Association named Picanso "C.I.O of the Year". Picanso also served as the State of Colorado's Chief Information Officer under former Governor Bill Owens, where he directed the Office of Innovation and Technology.
       Prior to joining Colorado state government, Picanso worked for Veterinary Services, serving 13 western states, and was a research associate at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. We look forward to his leadership in VS information technology community and his collaboration with the APHIS technology units."
       Picanso has been an integral member of the CDA team for nine years, providing great leadership and guidance in developing and implementing CDA's IT infrastructure.  From installing the agencies first e-mail system to architecting the developing Colorado Livestock Security System framework, Picanso has certainly made his mark on CDA.
       Picanso's expertise and knowledge in livestock production and information technology provided a great framework for his work at CDA on homeland security and development of systems to aid in animal disease programs and animal tracability.  Picanso's work with Colorado State University that was published in the American Society of Animal Science earlier this year, that analyzed the realities of effective livestock traceback during an animal disease event.  Recently Picanso has worked closely with Maulsby and Rick Wahlert and the 15 western states with brand laws in developing a set of recommendations for USDA to consider in implementing the national animal identification system.  (Contact:  Christi Lightcap, 303/239-4190)