Dr. Nathaniel S. Heiner

Dr. Heiner is currently detailed to the Department of Homeland Security as Acting Chief Knowledge Officer. In this capacity he is developing the long-term knowledge-management strategy for the Department, as well as participating in urgent short-term projects involving information sharing.

Dr. Heiner assumed duty as the U.S. Coast Guard’s Chief Knowledge Officer and Deputy CIO in January 2001. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Heiner was Director of Web/Internet Services at Northrup Grumman and Federal Data Corporation. His business unit was dedicated to working exclusively with Federal organizations such as the State Department, U.S. Navy, Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, Department of Justice, and U.S. Air Force. Dr. Heiner built the technical and program teams responsible for designing or delivering secure web infrastructure, enterprise websites, and internet/extranet portals. These portals featured the latest knowledge-management technologies, permitting diverse organizations to share information more freely. Prior to deployment, Dr. Heiner directed the team that delivered the GPRA-compliant strategic plan for implementing secure and scalable web technologies to a military agency. This plan provided a realistic and disciplined approach to performance metrics, for both specific projects and specific information systems. As a result of this plan, the Agency installed an enterprise-wide PKI implementation and enterprise-wide intranet. Mid-way through this period, Dr. Heiner also assisted in the management of several Y2K preparedness programs.

Prior to standing up this web/internet business unit, Dr. Heiner was in charge of Federal Data’s matrix-managed engineering business unit. The network and software engineers in this group were capable of handling technical projects from mainframe to desktop, with special expertise in networking. This diverse group of technical talent was matrixed into very large Federal IT programs involving long-term deployment of mainframes, supercomputers, high-speed secure networks, and complex desktop deployments. During this period, Dr. Heiner developed an approach to training that strongly promoted the careers, education, and training of the technical and mid-management staff. The result was a spirited group of young and not-so-young talent.

Dr. Heiner concentrates on key areas for management focus and constant improvement: loss of core talent; loss of staff time due to inefficiencies and redundancies; competition among divisions for resources; disparate and incompatible information systems; ineffective corporate networks; inattention to metrics and security; weak documentation of process and product; technical talent distributed throughout the organization, not communicating.

From 1986 to 1992, Dr. Heiner was president of Amazon Systems Inc. and The Logic Works. Amazon Systems specialized in networked database systems for the EDI marketplace; the Logic Works was a Unix systems integration and software development firm for the largest telecommunications firms, trade associations, and Federal agencies. In the early 1980s, Dr. Heiner was Vice President at Virginia Information Systems Corporation, also a Unix systems integration firm. Dr. Heiner’s first work in the computer industry, in the mid 1970s, was with the American Institute of CPAs, where he built a mainframe meta language that streamlined the AICPA’s publications process.

Dr. Heiner holds Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A., and B.A. degrees, all from Columbia University, where he also taught, and was President’s Fellow and Belgian-American Fellow. His academic specialization is in mathematical logic and linguistics, with a subspecialization in an area of semantics called theory of reference. This academic work took him abroad for nearly 5 years, to universities in Europe, as well as to an Amazonian tribe in Brazil. He has authored several academic publications, as well as acting as translator for a BBC film on his Amazonian friends. He maintains membership in several professional organizations, and is increasingly active as a participant in Federal inter-agency IT councils. There are rumors that he was a founding member of the roll-and-roll group Sha-Na-Na, leaving the group just before they signed the contract that took them to the Woodstock Festival. He is married to Elizabeth Kingma; they have two sons, Matthew and Devin.