Suzette Kent

Federal CIO, Executive Office of the President

For Kent, good leadership is “providing clear objectives, leading by example and being outcome-focused.” The Federal CIO leads the development of governmentwide IT policy and standards, coordinating the CIO Council to keep federal agencies aligned on IT modernization, cybersecurity and more. The development of a skilled federal IT workforce is one of her biggest priorities. “We have to leverage a wide spectrum of approaches to address recruitment and retention,” Kent said. “We aspire to have a talented, motivated, diverse IT workforce across all levels — to accomplish this, we must attract talent by engaging with them in a manner that aligns with their individual values. It is very important that we try many options and scale the approaches that yield meaningful experiences for the federal employee and results for agencies.”