Trump appoints his first federal CIO
US president Donald Trump has announced plans to appoint Ernst & Young principal Suzette Kent as the nation’s next chief information officer (CIO), the first permanent holder of that title in a year.
Dallas-based Kent was previously a partner at Accenture, a managing director at JPMorgan and president of global payments consulting for Carreker Corporation.
Deputy CIO Margie Graves has been acting CIO since January 2017, taking over from Tony Scott.
No confirmation
Congress created the position – also known as the administrator of the Office of Electronic Government at the (OMB) – in the E-Government Act of 2002. The appointment does not require Senate confirmation.
Duties include overseeing IT-based improvements to government operations in the areas of capital planning, investment control, enterprise architecture, information security, privacy, information access and disability access.
The CIO also directs the CIO Council, a forum for federal information officers to share practices around IT design, acquisition and performance.
Experience
On her LinkedIn page, Kent describes over 25 years of experience in treasury management, commercial banking and retail banking, with IT among the areas in which she has helped clients.
An earlier role at JPMorgan “encompassed hundreds of business transformation and technology initiatives across over 20 locations”, according to the LinkedIn page.
In a statement, the White House said of Kent: “Although technology change has been at the core of her professional career, retooling the workforce and creating new opportunities for people has been an essential element of efforts that she has led.”
About Tamar Wilner
Tamar Wilner is a Dallas-based journalist and researcher who writes about public policy and the media. She's written extensively on energy, the environment, urban planning and small business for trade publications in the US and UK, and contributes regularly to the Columbia Journalism Review. Find her at @tamarwilner.
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