Al Tarasiuk, IC Chief Information Officer, retires
By Loren Blinde
April 29, 2015
On April 28, Director of National Intelligence made the following statement on the retirement of Al Tarasiuk, the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer:
After more than 28 years of public service, Al Tarasiuk, the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer, will retire today. Al was appointed by President Obama in 2011 and his leadership has greatly benefited the entire Intelligence Community.
Al joined the CIA in 1988 as an electrical engineer developing and implementing radio frequency systems, and for the next 24 years built a distinguished career and enjoyed an outstanding reputation while he supported intelligence operations worldwide including service in Africa. He culminated his CIA career as their CIO where he led the overhaul of CIA’s corporate Information Technology operations, which included greater information sharing technologies. When I asked Al to do the same for the entire community, he didn’t hesitate.
In July 2011, I asked Al to find a way to reduce expenditures through IT efficiencies to offset expected budget reductions and deflect cuts to the IC’s core mission. Behind Al’s leadership the IC Information Technology Enterprise initial operational capability became available just 20 months after I issued this task. Since then, the IC ITE set of capabilities has grown significantly and the focus has shifted to agencies adopting IC ITE capabilities.
Al uniquely provided the balanced leadership needed to lead the community’s CIOs through this important transformational effort. The results of Al and his team are truly ground-breaking and have drawn the IC closer together to work better, faster and smarter. This is exactly what Congress intended when it empowered the IC CIO with Community-wide authority over enterprise architecture.
On behalf of the entire Intelligence Community, I thank Al for his years of exceptional service and wish him and his family well in his retirement and future endeavors.
James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence
