Dr. John Zangardi Assumes Duties as Acting DoD CIO; Tom Michelli Joins as Acting PD CIO

Dr. John Zangardi assumed the duties of Acting Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO) on Wednesday, March 1st, 2017, after serving as Principal Deputy DoD CIO since October 2nd of last year.

As acting DoD CIO, Zangardi will lead the organization that is the Principal Staff Assistant and senior Information Technology (IT) advisor to the Secretary of Defense. The DoD CIO is responsible for all matters relating to the Department’s information enterprise, and oversees the Defense Information Systems Agency at Ft. Meade, MD.

Zangardi’s focus areas are straightforward. He continues the organization’s determination to support the Warfighter; reduce and simplify DoD networks and systems, and protect them from cyber-attack; and improve effectiveness and efficiency across the board.

“I am truly excited about the DoD CIO’s continued support to warfighting and to the men and women who serve the nation,” said Zangardi.

He welcomes Tom Michelli from the U.S. Coast Guard as Acting PD CIO. On assignment to DoD CIO, Michelli is the CIO and Deputy Assistant Commandant for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and IT for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Together they will lead DoD’s move toward the completion of the deployment of Windows 10; expedite the roll out of the Joint Regional Security Stacks; drive the enterprise vision to reality; implement Cyber Scorecard 2.0; and execute improvements to National Leadership Command Capabilities and Positioning, Navigation, and Timing.

“I want to thank Terry Halvorsen for everything he did in setting the organization up for success,” said Zangardi. “We will continue to lean forward, and take risks when we can in providing the best IT products and systems to the Department. This is not the time for us to take our foot off of the accelerator.”