Chris Niedermayer is retiring after 33 years of federal service. The Department of Housing and Urban Development deputy chief information officer for business and information technology modernization will leave the government Dec. 2.

HUD CIO Jerry Williams said Patsy Garnett will assume Niedermayer’s responsibilities. Garnett has been chief IT transformation officer.

“From my perspective Chris has been a key member of my team and integral in the establishment of strong IT investment management policies and practices at HUD,” Williams said in an emailed statement to Federal News Radio. “Chris is looked at as a leader in this space across government and I believe that his contribution and innovation will serve both HUD and the federal government for many years.”

“I’ve been thinking about retiring over the last six months and I had been talking with Jerry [Williams] about what’s the best way to move on,” Niedermayer said in an interview with Federal News Radio. “I made my final decision about a month ago. What I plan to do is take two to three months to decompress and engage in some hobbies, and enjoy life a little bit. Then I look around and see what the market has to offer for me. I hope to be working sometime in the next quarter. The trick is to find something where my desires and values align with those of a company and make it an opportunity that I could stick with.”

Niedermayer’s retirement was first reported by the DorobekInsider.

This is the second high ranking IT official to leave HUD in the last two months.

Mark Day, the former HUD chief technology officer, recently went to the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service.

“It’s really purely coincidence with Mark’s departure. One is unrelated to the other,” Niedermayer said. “My motive is that this is the right time for me since being a federal employee since 1977 and working at seven different agencies, I want to be able to move on to a non-public sector role while I’m still young and able to contribute. Now is a good time for me to do it. I can start my second career and provide a valuable contribution.”

Niedermayer has been a stalwart in the federal IT community for much of his career. He served as president of AFFIRM 2008 and the 2011 government chairman of IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference. He’s been an advocate for identity management in the government.

Niedermayer said he’s most proud of two things: his work on federal identity management and his work at HUD on creating an integrated IT investment strategy.

“Every time I see someone on the metro with their HSPD-12 badge, it makes me think I had a hand of crafting the conclusion of that,” he said. “What we’ve done at HUD provides a look into our IT investments that is about the total value. It presents such potential to make HUD have very strong, effective and efficient IT operations.”

Niedermayer was the chairman the governmentwide E‐Authentication Executive Steering Committee from 2004 to 2007 and the HSPD‐12 Executive Steering Committee in 2005‐2006.

Along with working at HUD in 2009, Niedermayer worked the Agriculture Department and the Patent and Trademark Office in senior IT management positions.

He also worked at USDA’s Farm Service Agency and the Federal Grain Inspection Service during his career.

“I’ve got lot of good advice about making the transition to the private sector and I value it immensely,” he said. “I will go from large scale command and control type of environment to more of a contributor to a team and self sufficient delivery of something of value. It was great advice because it was something I may not think of right off.”

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