Intelligence Community Chief Information Officers Speak at DoDIIS 2021

Leonel Garciga, Director, Army Intelligence Community Information Management, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence (G-2) speaks on the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer Panel at the 2021 Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) worldwide conference on December 7, 2021. (Image via DVIDS)

WASHINGTON — The Army has selected Leonel Garciga as its next chief information officer (CIO), filling a key digital modernization position that’s been vacant for several months, the service announced today. 

As Army CIO, Garciga will be charged with furthering the service’s technological transformation, “ensuring the effective management and utilization of information systems across the organization,” according to the announcement.

Garciga currently serves as the director of information management in the Army’s G-2 intelligence directorate. He previously served as the chief technology officer and senior advisor on technology for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering technology from the Naval Nuclear Power School. 

“Having led the Army Intelligence Community CIO for four years, Garciga has extensive experience in developing innovative solutions and driving digital advancements will play a pivotal role in enhancing the Army’s capabilities in an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving digital landscape,” the announcement says. 

In his new role, Garciga will be responsible for the service’s vast information technology portfolio, including its digital transformation strategy and cloud efforts like the Enterprise Application Migration and Modernization contract, which is worth up to $1 billion. C4ISRNET first reported Garciga had been tapped as the next Army CIO. 

In January, then-Army CIO Raj Iyer announced in a LinkedIn post that he would be leaving his position in a few weeks to return to industry. He has since taken a role with cloud provider ServiceNow as the head of the company’s global public sector business.

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“The Army is on a strategic sustainable path to transform for the Army of 2030,” Iyer said in his LinkedIn post. “If I felt that the blood, sweat and tears that we have poured into this could be at risk I would stay on, but as I noted, the current change in our Army is irreversible. My job as the CIO is done when Army senior leaders can explain the Army Digital Transformation Strategy just as well as I. Our Army gets it at all echelons and there is no stopping us now.”

Deputy CIO and Chief Data Officer David Markowitz filled in as acting CIO after Iyer’s departure.