Trump Administration to Name OPM’s Basil Parker as Federal CIO
rhan Cam/Shutterstock.com
By
Aaron Boyd
The chief of staff and IT and cybersecurity workforce adviser will be appointed to the top IT position in the federal government, according to the White House.
President Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Basil Parker, chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, to lead IT policy for the U.S. government.
In a list of nomination and appointment announcements released Tuesday, the administration said Parker would be appointed administrator of the Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget—a position more widely known as the federal chief information officer.
Parker currently holds the titles of OPM chief of staff, which he has had since March, and senior adviser to the director for IT and cyber workforce development, which he has held since he returned to public service in April 2018.
Prior to joining OPM, Parker worked for a number of companies in the federal contracting community, including ASRC Federal, Booz Allen Hamilton, Technica Corporation and Telos Corporation, according to his LinkedIn page.
He started his career with four years in the U.S. Marine Corps and later joined the Defense Information Systems Agency as a computer scientist in 1995 after getting a degree from University of Maryland College Park.
Parker’s appointment comes a day after much of the federal community learned that OPM Deputy Director and acting Director Michael Rigas—who is also the acting OMB deputy director for management—had also been serving as acting federal CIO since July.