The State Department announced March 26 that it would be drawing from the private sector to fill its vacant chief information officer position.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced publicly via Twitter that Johnson and Johnson CIO Stuart McGuigan would take over the State Department’s IT post, formerly held in an acting capacity by Karen Mummaw.
“Every aspect of the department’s information technology capabilities and operations now falls under Stuart’s oversight, including architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data management, software and application development and acquisition,” Pompeo said in a memo to department staff.
“We also want to express our thanks to Karen Mummaw for her service these past 15 months as the department’s acting CIO," said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Palladino.
Mummaw is now pursuing retirement plans that were put on hold to take up the acting CIO position, according to Palladino.
McGuigan has held a number of CIO positions in the private sector, including at CVS Casemark and Liberty Mutual Insurance, but the State Department is his first foray into government service.
I am deeply honored and eager to begin my tenure at the @StateDept as your new Chief Information Officer. While I worked in industry for many years, I have always respected the mission - it's why I'm here. I am excited to begin this new chapter together.
— Stuart M. McGuigan (@StateDept_CIO) March 28, 2019
Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.
