Sonny Hashmi to leave GSA

General Services Administration CIO Sonny Hashmi is leaving the agency, and taking a job in the private sector.

The move has not yet been officially announced, and GSA did not immediately respond to FCW's requests for comment. After Hashmi broke the news to his team, however, word quickly began to spread in the agency and then to Twitter. Hashmi confirmed his departure plans to FCW late on March 10, saying he would transition out of GSA in early April.

He declined to name the new employer, and two industry sources with knowledge of his plans also refused to name the firm on the record. Hashmi had been contemplating options outside GSA for some time, one industry executive said, including the possibility of becoming CIO of a different agency, "but then an interesting opportunity in the private sector came along, and he decided to take it."

Hashmi is well liked in agency IT circles, and won a 2013 Federal 100 for his work as GSA's deputy CIO and chief technology officer. When then-CIO Casey Coleman left GSA in early 2014, the fact that Hashmi was there to replace her -- first in an acting capacity, then officially in June -- was a relief to many in the agency.

The succession plan may not be quite so obvious this time around. Kris Rowley holds GSA's deputy CIO and chief technology officer slot in an acting capacity, and acting Administrator Denise Turner Roth has been in her new role for barely a month. Associate CIO for Enterprise Infrastructure David Shive, however, has been in GSA's Office of the CIO since 2012, and could take on an expanded role. He is already serving as acting associate CIO for financial and human resources IT services.

Update: On March 11, acting GSA Administrator Roth announced that Shive would indeed take over as acting CIO when Hashmi departs.