After nearly a year as acting Defense Department CIO, Terry Halvorsen on March 8 officially assumed permanent duties as the Pentagon's lead on top IT priorities, according to DoD officials.
Halvorsen succeeds Teri Takai, who resigned as CIO in May 2014.
Recently: Halvorsen nears one year as acting CIO
Since taking on acting duties, Halvorsen has been active in accelerating some of the military's highest-profile IT initiatives, including leading the department toward the Joint Information Environment and pursuing pilot programs and broader implementation of commercial cloud services and mobility.
Opportunity: See Halvorsen and other top officials speak at the 14th Annual C4ISR & Networks Conference, April 7. Titled "The Intelligence Age Military," the conference will feature panel discussions on cybersecurity, military communications, unmanned systems and other topics. Click here for more information.
Halvorsen, who served as Navy CIO prior to becoming acting DoD CIO, has been working to strengthen the military services' buying power and autonomy when it comes to buying IT goods and services, including commercial cloud capabilities. Defense officials largely have praised Halvorsen's work at the Pentagon so far.
"I can tell you my personal interaction with the DoD CIO is a whole lot more frequent than in the past," said LTG Mark Bowman, director of command, control, communications and computer/cyber at the Joint Staff/J6, speaking at an event last September.
With the 2010 closure of the office the assistant secretary of Defense (networks and information integration), which formerly housed the DoD CIO position, no Senate confirmation is required to install a new DoD CIO. The DoD CIO office did not offer any further details about the transition from acting to permanent CIO.
