ACS launches education services line of business

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has established an education services unit and hired a senior official from the Department of Education to head the operation, the company announced Wednesday.

William Hansen, outgoing deputy secretary of education and a 12-year department veteran, will lead the new line of business for Dallas-based ACS, the company said.

ACS' Education Services will pursue opportunities exclusively in the state and local education market through its State and Local Solutions Group, the company said.

Hansen, who served the last two years as deputy secretary, was employed by the Department of Education in several posts from 1981 to 1993.

From 1993 until his appointment as deputy secretary, Hansen served as the president and chief executive officer of the Education Finance Council, a nonprofit trade association that represents state-based student loan secondary market organizations. Hansen also served on several state and national boards and commissions on reforming elementary and secondary schools and increasing access to higher education, including the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education.

The new business unit will focus on bringing ACS' business process outsourcing capabilities to the education market to address issues facing school systems in state and local government, the company said.

ACS' education services business line will take over several of the company's state and local education contracts, such as school readiness programs in Florida. In addition, the unit will explore solutions for challenges created by the Leave No Child Behind Act of 2001.

ACS, a provider of business process outsourcing and information technology outsourcing services to government and commercial clients, has more than 40,000 employees and had annual sales of $3 billion in fiscal 2002.