NATO appoints first Chief Information Officer – CityAM : CityAM

NATO has announced Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer will become its first Chief Information Officer, heading up IT procurement and cyber security.

Boudreaux-Dehmer joins the organisation from Sierra Wireless, a global tech company where he serves as Vice President of Systems and Technology. The new hire will help the international defence alliance to pursue modernisation.

“We welcome the appointment of Mr. Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer as NATO’s first Chief Information Officer. This new post, established by the North Atlantic Council, will help drive Information and Communications Technology (ICT) cohesion across NATO’s civil and military bodies,” said NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu, in comments to The Stack.

“As a senior advisor to decision-makers, the CIO supports capability development as it relates to ICT, and provides oversight for the design, development, and operation of the NATO enterprise architecture,” she said, adding that Bourdreaux-Dehmer would also be responsible for overseeing and raising awareness about cyber security.

The news follows recent comments about the need for NATO to update its culture and working practices by Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Camille Grand last year.

Grand told The Stack that the decision to hire a CIO was “very much part of our overall modernisation process that we are pursuing in multiple domains, but particularly in ICT.”

“The second focus is not so much about technology, but about change management: we have to bring that enterprise culture to every element of the enterprise and have all the NATO entities brought into this,” she added.

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