Former Army acquisition chief tapped to be DOD CTO
President Joe Biden announced plans to nominate Heidi Shyu — former top acquisition official in the Army — to lead the Department of Defense’s research and engineering enterprise.
As undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, Shyu will essentially be DOD’s chief technology officer, a position to which she brings extensive science and technology experience.
Before rising through the ranks of the Army’s Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, she worked in the defense industry as a senior engineer and executive and her work spanned unmanned, space and electronic warfare technologies.
If confirmed by the Senate, Shyu’s main responsibilities will be focused on delivering advanced technology to the DOD through its massive research and engineering enterprise. There is growing support for dramatically increasing DOD’s the research and development budget to reach technological superiority in key areas, including 5G, hypersonic missiles, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
Shyu is a recipient of the DOD medal for distinguished public service, the Army’s medal for distinguished civilian service and the Air Force’s decoration for exceptional civilian service.
