In the wake of the massive breach of the Office of Personnel Management's networks in 2015, the agency has been working closely with the Department of Defense to shore up the security of its most sensitive IT systems.
That collaboration became much more overt on Aug. 9 when OPM announced it was tapping DoD leadership to fill its open CIO slot.
David De Vries, the now former deputy CIO at DoD, has taken on the OPM CIO role, which was left vacant in February when the last CIO, Donna Seymour, resigned. Seymour's resignation came just days before what was expected to be a contentious hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and after repeated calls from lawmakers for her to step down.
At DoD, De Vries was one of the leads on the department's top two IT programs, the Joint Information Environment (JIE) and the Intelligence Community IT Enterprise (ICITE) — huge undertakings connecting disparate systems under single, unified architectures. Both programs have been years in the making, with no end in sight.
"I'm elated that David has decided to join our team here at OPM," said Beth Cobert, OPM acting director. "David has decades worth of the technical and management experience necessary to hit the ground running as we continue our technology transformation efforts and work with our partners at DoD to stand up the National Background Investigations Bureau."
De Vries has been working closely with OPM on the new National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), the most significant response to the OPM breach. The new bureau will be managed by OPM but the IT infrastructure is being developed and maintained by DoD. De Vries has been a key figure in NBIB's development so far and will continue to be, just from the other side.
"Dave will be missed by DoD, but DoD isn't losing his expertise," according to his former boss, DoD CIO Terry Halvorsen. "As DoD and OPM continue to improve current IT systems and begin the development of the new IT services and environment to support the NBIB, he will play a key leadership role, ensuring integration between OPM and DoD."
Cobert also highlighted the close relationship that has been fostered between OPM and DoD in recent months during a keynote at the DoD Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide conference last week.
"The importance of this collaboration — reaching across these boundaries — is one of the most important lessons I've learned," she said. "We in the civilian side of the world need to leverage your valued expertise to help us protect that information. Just as OPM has partnered with you [DoD and IC] in our effort to secure our systems, we need to find ways to learn from you and to take a whole-of-government approach."
Halvorsen agreed and noted De Vries' new position will help facilitate that.
"Dave will have the ability to bring expertise from DoD into OPM and ensure that DoD understands how lessons learned from the new IT can be applied within DoD and the other federal agencies," he said. "This will be a win that improves IT information sharing across all federal departments and agencies."
De Vries' move to the civilian side comes after more than 35 years at DoD, the last seven spent working in the Office of the CIO. He holds a bachelor's degree from West Point and a master's in electrical engineering from the University of Washington.
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.
