Michael Conlin, vice president and chief technology officer for defense at Perspecta, has been named the first chief data officer of the Defense Department, FedScoop reported Thursday.
The appointment is part of DoD’s prioritization of data management operations.
Conlin will help the department move out of its legacy information technology systems to gain more access to data.
The Pentagon CDO acknowledged in an interview with ExecutiveBiz in 2017 that aging systems prevent public sector organizations from maximizing their data, which can only be accessed through applications’ user interface.
“The public sector’s reflexive habit of classifying data as the default further complicates this challenge,†he added.
Conlin previously served as the chief technology officer for the U.S. public sector at DXC Technology, which was formed in 2017 through the merger of Computer Sciences Corporation and HP Enterprise Services.
He also held several IT-related leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard and its former subsidiary, EDS.