The Intelligence Community’s top IT official will replace Pentagon’s retiring deputy CIO

Essye Miller, principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense, will retire at the end of June, the Pentagon announced April 20.

Miller will be replaced by John Sherman, the chief information officer of the intelligence community.

Miller’s retirement marks the end of 35-year career in the federal government.

“I want to wish Essye Miller well in her upcoming retirement and thank her for 35 years of federal service to our nation,” said Dana Deasy, the DoD chief information officer. “Essye has been a trusted advisor to me, especially as I came onboard the DoD. Essye is without a doubt an inspiration to many and her dedication to the mission and leadership style will be missed throughout the department."

Prior to become principal deputy CIO, she worked as director of cybersecurity for the Army CIO/G-6. Before that, she worked as director of information management and the CIO for Headquarters Air Force. Miller spent much of her career as an IT specialist in the Air Force.

Miller has played a key role in the department’s preparing Defense Department employees and networks for the increase in telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sherman has been CIO of the intelligence community since September 2017. As IC CIO, Sherman is responsible for ongoing IT modernization projects, as well as IT security. Before his current role, he served as deputy director of the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise, where he helped harness new technology to boost open source intelligence. He also held several senior executive positions at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

"John will bring a breadth of experience to the organization and I look forward to working with him as we continue to implement the digital modernization strategy across the DoD,” Deasy said.

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