The FBI has named Chad Fulgham, a former technology executive at the now-defunct investment firm Lehman Brothers, as its next CIO. FBI Director Robert Mueller noted that Fulgham has extensive information security experience, which is an agency priority.
Fulgham will take the IT reins from Zalmai Azmi, who resigned in September and left the agency on Oct. 17 after serving as its CIO since 2004.
Fulgham's appointment comes at a time when the agency has been equipping its agents with more sophisticated tools for use in tracking down terrorists and other criminals. As part of its reliance on technology, the agency has distributed more than 20,000 BlackBerry handheld devices to field agents to help them do their jobs.
Gartner Inc. analyst John Pescatore told Computerworld.com that Fulgham's corporate background will be a plus for the agency. He says the biggest problem at the FBI, from a technology standpoint, is the fact that it has multiple IT units with their own systems and development funding, and no real top-down control.
"The way the government procures IT and deals with personnel is so convoluted that change is slow, if not impossible," Pescatore said. As a result, he said the agency needs an IT leader with merger and acquisition experience to pull together its tech operations. And the question remains, he said, how much authority the new CIO will be given.
For more on this appointment:
- check out this Computerworld.com article [1]
Related Articles:
Lehman Brothers news from FierceFinance [2]
FBI news from FierceCIO [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9123038&intsrc=hm_list
[2] http://www.fiercefinance.com/tags/lehman-bros
[3] http://www.fiercecio.com/tags/fbi