Steve Cooper is changing his address.

President Bush named Cooper, special assistant to the president and senior director of information integration at White House Office of Homeland Security--basically the nation's homeland security IT czar, as the first CIO of the new Department of Homeland Security.

Cooper had said the department's top IT spending priorities would be the creation a single E-mail directory so new colleagues can begin collaborating and Web portals for department leaders to communicate internally. "Things can be done with IT to help the new organization brand itself as a single, stronger entity," Cooper said late last year.

Before joining the White House, Cooper served as CIO and executive director of strategic information delivery at Corning Inc. Cooper earlier served as the director of corporate information systems at Eli Lilly & Co. He received his bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.