Mendes’ three goals for the year are continuing IT consolidation across his department’s 12 bureaus, completing their migration to the cloud and improving cybersecurity. As his workforce moves to a hybrid office/remote model, Mendes has prioritized connecting with employees. “IBM has been doing it for almost 30 years, and they’ve been quite successful,” Mendes said. “But it is a bit of a novel experience in these numbers in the federal sector, and it comes with an additional set of burdens and responsibilities that management has to take on.”