Trump nominates Kirsten Davies to be next DOD CIO

President Donald Trump has nominated Kirsten Davies to serve as the next chief information officer of the Department of Defense.

The nomination was submitted to Congress on Tuesday and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.

The Defense Department CIO “is the principal staff assistant and senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense for information technology (IT) (including national security systems and defense business systems), information resources management (IRM), and efficiencies. This means that DoD CIO is responsible for all matters relating to the DoD information enterprise, such as cybersecurity, communications, information systems, and more,” according to a Pentagon description of the role.

Davies has served in IT and cybersecurity roles at major firms in the private sector.

Previously, she was chief information security officer for Unilever; senior vice president and chief information security officer at the Estee Lauder Companies; managing director and group chief security officer at Barclays Africa (now known as Absa); vice president of enterprise security strategy and transformation solution at Hewlett-Packard; global deputy CISO at Siemens; and senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She is cofounder and CEO of the Institute for Cyber, which is a “non-profit organization with a mission to advance the safety, security, privacy, and digital integrity of experiences citizens have while using technology, AI, and digital data in their everyday lives,” according to the organization’s website.

Davies has also been a member of the National Security Institute’s Cyber and Tech Security Council. NSI is part of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Katie Arrington is currently the acting DOD CIO and recently launched a new Software Fast Track (SWIFT) program that aims to overhaul cumbersome bureaucratic mechanisms and streamline the Pentagon’s ability to rapidly approve new software capabilities for warfighters.

Leslie Beavers was acting CIO before Arrington was appointed to that role.

John Sherman served as Pentagon CIO during most of the Biden administration and was the last to be Senate-confirmed in the role.