GSA brings in new deputy CIO; Air Force, VA promote from within

Steve Grewal joined the General Services Administration as its new deputy chief information officer after spending the last four years at the Education Departme...

Three agencies are refilling the ranks of their IT executives.

Let’s start over at the General Services Administration, where Steve Grewal is the new deputy chief information officer.

Steve Grewal is the new deputy CIO at GSA.
Steve Grewal is the new deputy CIO at GSA.

As I first reported in early March, Grewal is indeed leaving the Education Department, making him the second senior leader to have left the department in the last two months. If you remember, Danny Harris resigned after a tumultuous hearing on his conduct and the agency’s cybersecurity posture before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“I have enjoyed my time here and appreciate the support you have provided to me during my tenure. I have had the privilege of working with some of the finest and talented people during the past 5-plus years,” Grewal wrote in an email to colleagues, which Federal News Radio obtained. “I will miss the team. I wish that my new job also provides me with great friends and colleagues like you. I wish you all, my fellow partners and everyone in the larger ED family, all the very best.”

Grewal had been acting CIO since Harris resigned. He worked at Education since 2012.

Grewal’s last day at Education was April 29 and starts at GSA on May 2.

Grewal steps into the role that current CIO David Shive held for three years before receiving a promotion in August 2015.

Along with Grewal, both the Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs promoted internal candidates to be deputy CIOs.

Bill Marion, the chief information officer for the Air Force’s personnel directorate at the Pentagon, will become the deputy CIO for the Air Force. Marion has been personnel directorate CIO since April 2015 where he focused on fixing the service’s HR systems.

Marion confirmed his promotion via Twitter. FedScoop first reported Marion’s new role.

Over at VA, LaVerne Council, the assistant secretary of the Office of Information and Technology and CIO, promoted Susan McHugh-Polley to be the new deputy assistant secretary for Service, Delivery, and Engineering.

A VA spokesperson confirmed that McHugh-Polley replaces Art Gonzalez, who left VA for the Commerce Department in March. She had been serving in an acting basis since Gonzalez left.

Meritalk first reported McHugh-Polley’s promotion.

There were two other interesting executive moves last week as well.

Over at the National Archives and Records Administration, Jay Trainer, the executive for agency services, announced Laurence Brewer has been appointed as the new Chief Records Officer for the government starting May 1. Brewer replaces Paul Wester, who left in October. Brewer has been acting chief records officer since then.

Brewer joined NARA in 1999 and held several positions, including most recently as the director of the Records Management Operations Program. In this position, he oversaw the scheduling and appraisal of federal records; developed records management regulations and guidance; supported records management training for employees across the government; and evaluated the effectiveness of records management programs in agencies.

Finally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology appointed Christopher Boyer as the new chairman of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB).

Boyer, the assistant vice president for global public policy at AT&T Services, Inc., takes over the role from current chairman, Peter Weinberger.

NIST says Boyer has been an ISPAB member since June 2012, and his term as chairman will end on June 10, 2020.

Congress created the ISPAB in 1987 to advise NIST. Lawmakers then expanded the board’s responsibilities in 2002 when the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 became law. ISPAB’s responsibilities include review of proposed standards and guidelines developed by NIST.

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