Justice Department CIO Vance Hitch tells staff he will retire in July

Hours after federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra surprised the Washington technology community with his plans to leave government service, Justice Department CIO Vance Hitch told colleagues he would retire at the end of July.

In an email Thursday evening to CIO office staff, Hitch thanked colleagues for their hard work and noted, "We have had significant achievements in many areas, including cyber security and information sharing, and I know that the department will continue to thrive in those and other aspects of information technology."

Hitch's departure after nine years at Justice will leave a significant hole in the federal CIO community. He has been a central figure in shaping the administration's technology policy and co-chairs the CIO Council's Information Security and Identity Management Committee, the principal interagency forum for developing policies and procedures for dealing with high-priority IT security issues.

Before joining Justice in 2002, Hitch was a senior partner with Accenture. According to his official bio, his projects there included the development of the IT Strategic Plan for the State of Maryland and a comprehensive re-engineering and automation of the City of Philadelphia's Records Department. Other government organizations that he worked with include the State Department, the National Security Agency, the CIA, the Defense Department and multiple state and local governments.