Transition

HUD picks former EV engineering exec Eric Sidle as CIO

The agency said in a memo to staff that Sidle, a ChargePoint and Apple alum, “will use his invaluable experience as a tech leader” to help promote homeownership across the country.

By Matt Bracken

May 22, 2025

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A view of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is pictured in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Eric Sidle, a longtime engineer and executive in the electric vehicle and technology industries, has been tapped by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as the agency’s new chief information officer.

Sidle, who spent the past two years with the technology consulting firm Fabrum Advisors, takes over for Juan Sargeant, who served as HUD’s acting CIO and has now returned to his previous role as deputy CIO, according to a leadership page on the agency’s website. Sargeant’s placeholder appointment came after the departure of Sairah Ijaz, a HUD staffer since 2016 who was elevated to CIO last year.

In a message sent to HUD staff Wednesday and shared with FedScoop, the office of the secretary’s chief of staff said that as CIO, Sidle will “use his invaluable experience as a tech leader to help things run smoothly so we can continue our important mission of promoting the American Dream of homeownership and serving rural, tribal and urban communities.”

Sidle, who holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, has held engineering jobs at several companies, including Raytheon, Hewlett Packard and Apple, where he managed the MacBook Pro System team, according to HUD’s internal email.

He pivoted in 2016 to the EV industry, leading autonomous driving teams at NIO and then jumping to ChargePoint, where he served as senior vice president and chief technology officer for the EV charging network.

There has been plenty of turnover in the CIO position across agencies during the early months of the Trump administration. The Department of Energy, for example, has already gone through two permanent CIOs, while the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration have also seen upheaval in their IT shops.

Many of the new CIOs have had previous ties to Palantir, Elon Musk’s companies or DOGE. It’s unclear if Sidle has any similar connections, but ChargePoint has long been in competition with Tesla, Musk’s EV company, for charging-network supremacy.