Former VMware CIO Tony Scott was named the new Federal CIO on Thursday, making him the third person to hold the position since it was established in 2009.
Scott will fill the vacancy left by the last Federal CIO, Steve VanRoekel, who moved over to USAID in September to apply his experience in health IT to the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Before joining WMware as CIO in 2013, Scott held the same position at Microsoft and the Walt Disney Company. Before that, he was CTO of Information Systems and Services for General Motors.
"Tony Scott will bring to his new role strong leadership skills and a passion for success," said Jonathan Chadwick, CFO, COO and executive vice president for VMware. "We are excited for him and the country and we thank Tony for his pioneering work at VMware."
Along with the Federal CIO title, Scott will also act as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government within OMB.
"Under Tony's leadership, we will continue to build on the remarkable work done by the nation's first CIOs Vivek Kundra and Steve VanRoekel in changing the way the federal government manages IT," OMB Director Shaun Donovan and Deputy Director Beth Cobert wrote in a blog post Thursday. "Tony is the right person to drive the administration's Smarter IT Delivery Agenda and the core objectives across the federal IT portfolio — (1) driving value in federal IT investments, (2) delivering world-class digital services, and (3) protecting federal IT assets and information."
Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.
