Vasili Ikonomidis
CIO, Empower AI
Not only was Empower AI rebranded from the former NCI, but the company also transformed and won its largest contract in company history – $807 million from the General Services Administration’s Office of Digital Infrastructure Technologies.
Thanks to the leadership of Vasili Ikonomidis, these initiatives and several others helped the company smoothly transition from an IT services provider to a full-scale technology company.
For the GSA DIGIT program, a mission-critical initiative known for its significant scale to leverage artificial intelligence technologies, Ikonomidis played a key role from the beginning. He led the entire technology and service desk transition from the current contractor, which GSA said was the “smoothest transition” it had ever undergone.
Around that same time, Ikonomidis and his team outsourced IT service desk operations for employees and customers to Red River, reducing ticket closing times and improving customer service. They also onboarded more than 200 employees with the new GSA contract, moved from traditional land lines to RingCentral at a $50,000 monthly savings and participated in a company-wide migration to Microsoft Azure services.
Empower AI also moved to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Richmond, Virginia, to better support its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services customers. These initiatives have helped the company save over $1 million.
“Vasili has the unique ability to combine his strong knowledge of operational, technical and capabilities with a deep understanding of the user experience and their needs,” said Paul Dillahay, Empower AI president and CEO . “And when you add his sincere, tireless and steadfast dedication to the teams he leads, it has a positive impact on everyone around him, as well as our business.”
Why Watch
Going forward, Ikonomidis and his team will develop and implement new AI capabilities internally to bring new business value, while also working with developers to further transform AI tools and other technologies for to federal clients. Other initiatives in 2022 include upgrading and migrating the company’s financial systems to ServiceNow and Costpoint, and further improving device and network security using Okta and other tools.
“We believe that AI will play the most important role in advancing innovation and modernization of our federal IT systems, as well as our own business,” Ikonomidis said. “It’s exciting to lead these efforts not only for our government clients, but for our employees as well.”
Read the full list of Top CIOs to Watch in 2022 here.