NRC CIO Ash moving on to USDA bureau

Darren Ash, one of the longest-serving federal chief information officers, is moving on to a new job.

Ash has been named the CIO of the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency. He comes to the USDA after spending roughly the last nine years as the CIO of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

FSA confirmed Ash would move to the agency starting March 5.

Ash replaces Larry Gross, who left FSA in October to take the reigns of CIO at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Gross was CIO at FSA less than six months.

Radha Sekar has been the acting CIO since Gross left in October.

During his time at NRC, Ash helped improve the agency’s technology infrastructure to prepare for an expected increase in applications for nuclear power plants. He oversaw the effort to push NRC slowly to use cloud computing and take advantage of mobile devices.

James Flanagan is the deputy CIO at NRC and likely will be acting until a permanent CIO is named.

Before coming to NRC, Ash spent four years at the Transportation Department, and 12 years with the Treasury Department, including seven as a program analyst at the IRS.

Ash also plays an active role with the CIO Council, serving as co-chairman of the workforce committee. He helped create a survey of CIOs and chief human capital officer council to figure out where the gaps exists in hiring IT talent.

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