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Vishal Aswani
Chief of Staff for the Department of Defense,
Office of the Chief Information Officer
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Mr. Vishal (Vish) Aswani is a career DoD civilian, serving as the Chief of Staff for the Office of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO).
Prior to this role, Mr. Aswani was the Director for Cyberspace Activities Budget Oversight, under the Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity and DoD CISO. As Director, he led CIO’s oversight and assessment efforts for Cybersecurity against the Department’s roughly $13B annual IT/Cyberspace Activities budget. He also led the cyber activities resourcing process, established functional standards across the DoD for Cybersecurity-related budget submissions in support of DoD CIO’s authorities for budget certification, and increased visibility into DoD investments to support budget allocation prioritization.
Before coming to DoD CIO, Mr. Aswani was with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, serving as the Supervisory Critical Infrastructure Protection Standards Functional Lead. In that capacity, he was the team lead for the Office of Electric Reliability’s efforts in monitoring and participating in Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards development process with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). During his tenure, he led efforts for Commission action with industry to address CIP reliability standards alignment with the NIST Cybersecurity framework, as well as for the need of internal security monitoring across the Bulk Power Systems infrastructure. He also previously has worked for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), serving as the Shore Readiness Division Cybersecurity Program Manager and OPNAV staff lead for Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, and prior to that with Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic as a Senior Enterprise Architect.
Mr. Aswani proudly serves as an Officer in the Navy Reserves as well. He is an Information Warfare qualified Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer and is currently serving as the Executive Officer for Naval Reserve Fleet Readiness Center Detachment Norfolk. He was previously deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and has also served on Active Duty for Operational Support with the National Reconnaissance Office, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). His personal military awards include the Joint Service Commendation Medal (2), the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (2), and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (2). He is the recipient of the 2015 NAVAIR Reserve Program Junior Officer of the Year award.
Mr. Aswani is a graduate of the George Washington University with a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering with a double major in Physics. He also holds a Master’s in Science in Cybersecurity Technology from the University of Maryland Global Campus as well as a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. Additionally, he is Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase I qualified.