Stephen Rice to Serve as DHS CIO After Staropoli Resigns

Stephen Rice will serve as the acting CIO of the Department of Homeland Security, following the abrupt resignation last week of CIO Richard Staropoli, who had been on the job only since late April.

The DHS confirmed Staropoli's departure on Monday, according to reports from FCW, The Hill and ZDNet. It remains unclear why he resigned suddenly from the agency on Aug. 3. DHS told FCW  and other news outlets that Staropoli's resignation is effective Sept. 1. 

Rice, who had been deputy CIO at DHS, will serve in the CIO role until President Donald Trump appoints a new CIO for the department.

As FedScoop, which first reported the news, notes: “Staropoli took the position — vacated by Luke McCormack in January and held by Jeanne Etzel in the interim — after serving most recently as managing director and chief information security officer of Fortress Investment Group, a billion-dollar hedge fund in New York City.” The Hill adds that he “served as a special agent in the Secret Service for 25 years, during which time he worked in a number of positions, including those in the Presidential Protective Division, the Hostage Rescue Unit and the intelligence community.”

In June, Staropoli indicated how he planned to restructure DHS’s IT and called for the office to “operate more like a hedge fund and to spend money more carefully on IT,” The Hill reports.