Senate confirms new Pentagon CIO

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Pentagon chief information officer.

Kirsten Davies was confirmed for the role, along with about 100 other nominees across federal agencies, in a 53-43 vote following a Republican-led rules change that lets tranches of senior personnel get approved in a bloc by a single vote.

Davies, who was originally nominated for the post in May, will take over from Katie Arrington, who has performed the duties of the Defense Department’s CIO since March.

In her confirmation hearing, Davies told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon is often weighed down by costly legacy systems and a lack of optimized data. She vowed to make commercial solutions “the presumptive first choice” for cyber-related matters, a nod to the department’s push to acquire new capabilities and get them into the field faster.

“There are great people but at today’s speed of change, skills must be constantly refreshed and future fit. New entrants with innovative tech solutions struggle with red tape and lack of access. Cyberattacks are pervasive and America’s adversaries are motivated and capable to inflict massive impact and there is little deterrence,” she told lawmakers.

“Great change is needed in this time and in this hour.”

Davies was most recently the chief information security officer at Unilever, a role she previously held at Estée Lauder Companies. Davies previously was the managing director and group chief security officer for Barclays Africa, now known as ABSA. 

She also held cybersecurity roles at tech giant Hewlett Packard and Siemens, as well as leadership positions at Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte Australia.