Secretary Curt Topper | Department of General Services | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
About Speaker
"Curt Topper was appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of General Services on January 20, 2015, and was confirmed by the Senate on May 12, 2015. As Secretary of General Services, Topper oversees Pennsylvania’s state government operating agency responsible for the procurement of goods and services, the management of non-highway capital projects, the management of the commonwealth’s real estate portfolio, increasing and advancing contracting opportunities for small and small diverse businesses and the maintenance and protection of state-owned buildings and facilities. Under his leadership as DGS Secretary, the department has: Adopted a new mission “to help government operate more efficiently, effectively, and safely; delivering exceptional value for all Pennsylvanians.” Taken the lead in training and applying lean thinking, principles, behaviors and tools to the department’s business areas to help them add more customer value to key product and service offerings by removing waste and identifying and resolving root causes of ongoing problems; Lowered the costs for goods and services purchased by state agencies saving approximately $143 million from 2015 -2017 by leveraging procurement technologies and strategies such as reverse auctions and contract renewal discounts; Optimized the commonwealth’s mail presort process by bringing it in-house and leveraging technical and physical resources, saving the commonwealth more than $2 million since 2015; Spearheaded the commonwealth’s diversity, inclusion and small business opportunities efforts, including commissioning the commonwealth’s first-ever statewide disparity study on state government contracting; and Received national and statewide recognition for its efforts to modernize the commonwealth’s construction management process by going to a totally electronic environment, streamlining processes and cutting bureaucratic red-tape by empowering employees to make decisions. The effort earned national honors in e-Builder’s 2017 “Innovators in Construction Award” for the public sector and statewide honors by receiving the highly competitive Governor’s Office of Transformation, Innovation, Management and Efficiency, or GO-TIME, Award. Prior to his appointment to Secretary of DGS, Topper served at Georgetown University, where he renegotiated service and supply arrangements and introduced business process and system improvements to reduce the University’s operating costs by more than $1 million. Topper also served as deputy secretary of procurement for the commonwealth from 2005 to 2008, where he led the department’s new shared services centers for procurement, warehousing, and print production. In this role, he was instrumental in modernizing and streamlining operations and played a key role in the implementation of new procurement activities. Topper also negotiated key contracts and reduced costs for the commonwealth by more than $200 million annually."