DOD, GSA Makes IT Leadership Changes

It has been a busy week in the world of federal IT leadership changes, with the Defense Department and the General Services Administration bringing new players to technology leadership roles. 

First, on Dec. 8, the Defense Department named Essye Miller its acting CIO. Miller had been serving as the department’s CISO and deputy CIO. She moved into a position vacated by John Zangardi, who President Donald Trump appointed to the role of Department of Homeland Security CIO in October. The DOD has been without a permanent CIO since Terry Halvorsen stepped down in February. 

Then, on Dec. 11, Alan Thomas, the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner, announced that Rob Cook, the director of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Service (TTS), “has been asked” to join GSA’s Office of Governmentwide Policy as its chief innovation adviser, Federal News Radio reports. Cook’s assistant, Crystal Philcox, will now be the director of IT services in the Office of the IT Category (ITC), FedScoop reports.

Joanne Collins Smee will now serve as acting TTS director and deputy commissioner of FAS. Smee joined GSA in September after a long career at IBM to help launch an IT Modernization Centers of Excellence in partnership with the White House’s Office of American Innovation, FedScoop reports. Smee will continue her Centers of Excellence work as she takes over TTS.

In June, GSA reorganized the TTS and merged into the FAS. The changes came a little more than a year after the GSA created the TTS to serve as one-stop-shop for agencies looking to modernize and transform their IT. 

Finally, as Federal News Radio reports: “Bill Zielinski is the new deputy assistant commissioner of the Information Technology Category (ITC), taking over for Kay Ely, who was promoted to assistant commissioner in September in another round of personnel changes Thomas implemented.”