Federal 100: Adrian Gardner
Name: Adrian Gardner
Title: CIO
Agency: Federal Emergency Management Agency
The disaster artist. When local communications infrastructure broke down in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Gardner pushed FEMA to embrace a “survivable communications” strategy by shipping satellite phones and low-frequency communication devices to local officials so they could operate effectively in a disaster environment. He also instituted new derived credentials for FEMA mobile devices and fought off an upsurge in cyberattacks from opportunistic hackers looking to take advantage of the chaos. “Adversaries see that kind of response coming from an agency, and they look at that as an opportunity to throw all they can at you,” Gardner said.