GSA deputy Stephen Ehikian to depart post

Stephen Ehikian, the deputy administrator at the General Services Administration who led the agency through the first six months of the Trump administration, will “transition out” of his role at the agency, he told staff in a Tuesday email obtained by Nextgov/FCW. 

Ehikian’s departure comes just over a month after he was ousted from his position as the acting head of the agency and replaced by Michael Rigas, who is also a deputy secretary at the State Department. Shortly after, Trump nominated financial executive Edward Forst to lead GSA, which plays a central role in government real estate, technology and procurement. 

Ehikian is the latest of several day one Trump appointees — and affiliates of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency — at GSA and other agencies to leave their posts. 

GSA was an early stronghold for DOGE, and POLITICO reported in July that Elon Musk ally Steve Davis, the former operational head of the efficiency effort, had sought for Ehikian to be one of several new leaders of DOGE, alongside the agency’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, Josh Gruenbaum.

During his tenure, Ehikian oversaw mass workforce turnover at the agency, both via voluntary departures and layoffs, including the elimination of entire GSA teams. 

“By cutting outdated regulations, centralizing procurement, optimizing real estate, adopting smarter tech and modeling the change we want to see, we are delivering a better government for the American people,” Ehikian wrote in his email, saying that “government doesn’t need to be slow.”

Now, Ehikian, who previously worked at software company Salesforce, says that he intends to be “an advisor to the leadership team during this transition.” 

In another agency-wide email earlier on Tuesday, Rigas noted simply that Ehikian “will be sharing an important message with staff today” and told staff that Forst has been meeting with GSA to prepare for a confirmation hearing.

“I want to thank Stephen Ehikian for his service and wish him well in his next steps,” Rigas told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. The agency did not provide details on when Ehikian’s is leaving his post at GSA or who will be replacing him.

Rigas outlined the following goals for the agency in his email: optimizing the federal buildings portfolio; centralizing procurement; enhancing IT infrastructure and software services, including a focus on AI; and “eliminating, optimizing and automating processes to allow GSA to do more with less staff.”

So far, some of the agency’s top priorities during Trump 2.0 have been centralizing procurement and rewriting acquisition regulations, optimizing real estate and spurring artificial intelligence adoption. 

GSA has also sought to streamline its cloud security authorization program and consolidate software as a shared service, Ehikian highlighted in his email.

The agency cut $193 million from its IT budget in fiscal 2025, according to Ehikian’s email, something he attributed to "system consolidation and smarter procurement.” GSA is “on track to save another $276 million in FY26,” he said. 

Rigas encouraged staff to "explore further efficiency avenues,” warning that “in some areas, we may need to stop activity that doesn’t align to first principles or is not statutorily required.”