Clark Minor out as Health and Human Services’ IT chief

The Department of Health and Human Services has a vacancy in its top IT post.

Clark Minor is no longer listed as the agency’s chief information officer, per a webpage with the health department’s IT leadership. Instead, David Hong, the principal deputy CIO, is now identified as the department’s acting IT chief. 

It is unclear when the change to the webpage was made. HHS spokespeople did not immediately respond to FedScoop’s requests for comment on the timing of Minor’s departure as CIO. 

Per an agency source granted anonymity to speak more candidly, Minor gave notice to the secretary and is staying on as an advisor to help with the transition.

Minor began at HHS as its chief technology officer in the early days of the second Trump administration, and was eventually tapped to replace Jennifer Wendel as CIO upon her departure.

He has often been affiliated with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency organization. Before joining the department, Minor was global head of cloud at Palantir Technologies for over a decade, per his financial disclosure published by ProPublica. 

Palantir was co-founded by tech investor Peter Thiel, a former business partner of Elon Musk and supporter of President Donald Trump, and is a growing presence in government. The company has won billions in federal technology contracts across multiple agencies since roughly 2008. 

Multiple Palantir formers, including outgoing federal CIO Greg Barbaccia, were brought on to technology roles during the Trump administration. 

While he’s been leading technology at the agency for over a year, Minor hasn’t had a public-facing presence as the agency’s IT leader.

Under Minor’s leadership, HHS undid a reorganization of the top AI, tech and data roles orchestrated under the Biden administration. The previous reorg moved those roles out of the office of the CIO and into the department’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. 

In March, the Trump administration brought those roles back under the umbrella of the CIO. 

In a rare statement provided in a press release, Minor said bringing the functions together would allow the agency to “move faster on shared platforms, protect our systems more effectively, and support ONC and the operating divisions with the technology capabilities they need to innovate for patients.”

Minor’s departure comes after the announced exits of several IT leaders across government. In addition to Barbaccia’s coming departure at the end of August, Department of Interior’s Paul McInerny already left government, per NextGov, and the Department of Transportation’s Pavan Pidugu has plans to depart in September.

Additionally, Zachary Terrell is no longer publicly listed as the HHS’s chief technology officer, per the department’s webpage. Terrell was previously identified as a member of the agency’s DOGE team, though he was not directly employed by the U.S. DOGE Service.

The HHS spokespeople also did not respond to FedScoop’s request for comment on when Terrell left that role.