OPM aide tapped as next federal CIO
The chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management is taking over the top federal tech job for the last days of the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump announced the appointment of Basil Parker, currently chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, to serve as federal CIO.
The move comes with 63 days left of the Trump administration.
Parker comes to the job with IT experience and professional certifications. According to his LinkedIn page, he has served as a computer scientist at the Defense Information Systems Agency and held positions at multiple federal contractors including Booz Allen Hamilton, ASRC Federal and Technica Corporation.
Parker joined OPM in 2018 as a senior advisor on IT and cybersecurity workforce development and became chief of staff in March 2020.
Parker replaces Mike Rigas, the acting deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of OPM, in the CIO slot. Rigas had been holding the CIO title after Suzette Kent's resignation in July.
The federal CIO – formally the administrator of the office of Electronic Government – is appointed by the president but does not require Senate confirmation.