Leslie Beavers, most recently director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance enterprise capabilities within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, has been appointed principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense.
Her new role is slated to take effect May 8, the DOD CIO office said Monday in a LinkedIn post.
Beavers will be responsible for helping advise the defense secretary on matters related to information technology, information management, information assurance, critical satellite communications, non-intelligence space systems, telecommunications, spectrum and navigation and timing programs.
She will also work with CIOs of defense agencies and field activities to facilitate strategic resource planning across cybersecurity and IT areas.
DOD CIO John Sherman said Beavers’ experience overseeing the Defense Intelligence Digital Transformation Campaign Plan within OUSD(I&S) will enable her to further advance initiatives such as zero trust, software modernization, electromagnetic spectrum operations and the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program.
David McKeown, senior information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity at DOD, has served as acting principal deputy CIO since Kelly Fletcher stepped down in October to become the State Department’s CIO.
“Dave’s experience, leadership, and drive have been invaluable as we rolled out Zero Trust and awarded JWCC,” Sherman said.
Sherman and McKeown are both 2023 Wash100 Award recipients.