CIA appoints La’Naia Jones as chief information officer
The CIA has appointed veteran intelligence community (IC) technology leader La’Naia Jones as chief information officer at the agency.
She takes up the post after previously serving as both deputy CIO of the National Security Agency, and NSA’s information sharing and safeguarding executive. Previously, she was acting CIO within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Her new leadership role at the CIA comes after Adele Merritt was last week named chief information officer of the IC. Merritt was the first person to hold that role on a permanent basis since the departure of Matthew Kozma.
Jones starts work as the IC continues works to counter Russian disinformation operations in Ukraine, and in recent weeks has won plaudits from lawmakers for rapidly declassifying certain secret intelligence.
In her new role, La’Naia will have responsibility for IT systems at the CIA, as well as the agency’s global communications network. She takes over from Juliane Gallina, who according to LinkedIn stepped back from the CIO role in October last year to take a leadership post at the agency’s directorate of digital innovation.
In a post on LinkedIn, CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Jennifer Ewbank said: “Ms. Jones brings valuable leadership, technical expertise, knowledge, and global experience to this role.”
She added: “Ms Jones’ experience and leadership will help CIA harness rapidly evolving digital technologies and strengthen key partnerships to advance our national security mission. We could not be more pleased to have her join CIA!”
