NGA Announces New Director

The agency responsible for collecting, analyzing and disseminating geospatial data around the globe for the military and intelligence community announced it will have a new director in February.

On Dec. 26, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency announced Rear Adm. Robert Sharp would replace Robert Cardillo, who has headed the agency since 2014. It is unclear whether Cardillo will retire or take another assignment.

Sharp currently serves as commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and director of the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office, and once served as the director for intelligence for U.S. Special Operations Command. He will take the directorship of an agency that has upped its capabilities across numerous emerging technologies in recent years, including the use of artificial intelligence to reduce analysis time for analysts.

Under Cardillo, NGA opened its doors to industry through public-private partnerships and workforce initiatives in a quest for “bleeding-edge technologies.” In addition, NGA last year launched a recruitment plan to target Silicon Valley’s top technical talent as part of its Data-Enabled Workforce strategy. Under the plan, NGA began hiring software engineers, developers and coders, along with dozens of data scientists, while offering short-term tours-of-duty for certain technical talent.