Energy deputy CIO Adcock heading to private sector

Don Adcock is leaving government after 17 years, including the last three at Energy as its deputy CIO.

The Energy Department is losing its second senior career technology executive in seven months.

Don Adcock, the deputy CIO, announced today he’s leaving government after more than 17 years. Adcock, who also served as acting CIO at Energy, said in an email obtained by Federal News Radio that his last day is April 17 and he will join the private sector. He didn’t say for which company he would be working.

Don Adcock
“The timing, in my opinion, is perfect. The last year has been full of many accomplishments and it is a convenient point to turn over those accomplishments, and all

the exciting work that lies ahead, to an extremely capable team and our new CIO,” Adcock wrote in an email to staff. “Looking back over the last three years there is a solid list of OCIO accomplishments that clearly shows the quality of our professionals and our joint commitment to making DoE better each and every day.”

Adcock’s decision to leave follows that of Bob Brese, the former Energy CIO, who left in September after more than 30 years in government including the last four as the head technology executive as leaving the department.

It’s unclear who will replace Adcock even on an acting basis.

Energy recently named Michael Johnson to be its new CIO, replacing Brese. Johnson is a political appointee, among the first of many required to lead agencies under the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act. (FITARA)

Adcock joined Energy in April 2012 after spending the previous two years as the head of the Army IT Agency. He also worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency, where among his responsibilities was to manage the $6.5 billion Solutions for IT Enterprise (SITE) acquisition program. Adcock also was the chief of the Office for Intelligence Solutions where he helped transform DIA’s intelligence applications.

While at Energy, Adcock focused on several key initiatives, including open data, cloud computing and energy efficient IT operational strategies.

“At Energy, what we are really doing is we are trying to harness cloud technologies and tools so that we can shift through and understand the data that is there and really bring the right data to the right user set so they can make informed and better decisions,” Adcock said, during a panel discussion in December sponsored by Microsoft on Federal News Radio. “How do you tag and categorize data so that’s its accessible and what are the roles that people have attached to their identity that allow them to get in and exploit that data even if it’s not something that’s directly in their line of business but still applicable to what they are looking for?”

In his note to staff and colleagues, Adcock praised his co-workers for the progress they’ve made together at Energy.

“I can’t think of a better way to cap off more than 17 years of combined military and federal service than to have spent the last three of them with you,” he said.

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