IC Hones in on New CIO

It appears the intelligence community, composed of 17 intelligence agencies, will soon have a new chief information officer following the departure of Al Tarasiuk in April.

In a statement released Thursday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced the intelligence community’s intent to appoint as its new CIO, Raymond Cook, who currently serves as the National Reconnaissance Office’s director of mission operations. 

Cook formerly led multiagency IT infrastructure, data sharing and compliance within the Central Intelligence Agency and has the Obama administration’s backing, Clapper said. Cook cannot begin in any official capacity without the president’s formal appointment.

“I am very pleased that President Obama announced today his intent to appoint Dr. Ray Cook to be the next intelligence community chief information officer,” Clapper said. “Ray’s breadth and depth of managing highly technical programs, his proven leadership and relentless commitment to national security make him an excellent choice to be the next IC CIO.”

If appointed, Cook will have somewhat large shoes to fill.

Tarasiuk was one of the chief architects of the successful Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise. ICITE (pronounced EYEsite) has changed the business model for IT in the intelligence community, requiring a shared services approach.

Among the pillars of ICITE has been the intelligence community’s move to commercial cloud computing, beginning with a $600 million deal with Amazon Web Services.