MaSSSoftech

A former Fortune 200 information systems executive was chosen Thursday to head Virginia's troubled computer superagency.

George F. Coulter of Purcellville was selected by the Information Technology Investment Board as the state's new chief information officer.

That makes Coulter, with more than 30 years experience in the field, responsible for addressing numerous blown deadlines and chronic complaints of high prices and poor service by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

The six-year-old agency was formed to consolidate state information technology systems.

Criticisms of its performance and slow start brought the scrutiny of a House of Delegates committee, a Senate subcommittee and the General Assembly's investigative arm onto VITA and Northrop Grumman, its corporate partner in a $2.3 billion, 10-year venture. The Northrop Grumman contract is the largest ever awarded to a vendor for a single project in Virginia.

Coulter succeeds interim CIO Leonard Pomata, who was hired to the post in June, just days after Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had appointed Pomata to a cabinet post as secretary of technology. Pomata Lemuel Stewart, whom the ITIB removed as CIO.

On Friday, Attorney General William C. Mims said in a legal opinion that Pomata could not hold his cabinet position and the job of CIO at the same time.

Coulter has held top information technology jobs with multinational banking, energy, insurance, transportation, telecommunications and food companies. Most recently, he was in charge of information systems for Solera Holdings, a company that provides software and services used in processing automobile insurance claims.

He was the CIO of Arlington-based AES, which has electrical utility business in 28 countries on five continents, from 2003 to 2007.

Coulter was chosen after a national search that began in the spring by the global executive search firm Korn-Ferry International. He begins his five-year contract as CIO at an annual salary of $191,906 on Monday.