Gilligan to return to private sector

SALT LAKE CITY ? Air Force Chief Information Officer John Gilligan plans to return to the private sector once a new organizational structure for the CIO's office is in place. Gilligan, a panelist at yesterday's morning session of the 17th annual Systems and Software Technology Conference here, spoke with PostNewsweek Tech Media afterward about his plans.

"We're going to stand up the new organization May 10," Gilligan said. "At that point, I will transition out of government."

He said he has not made any decisions about where to go, but there are several issues he has worked on at the Air Force that he continues to be interested in: security, protecting data integrity, how to make a data architecture accessible to warfighters, and systems and process modernization.

Then-Secretary of the Air Force James Roche announced in December a plan to merge the service's CIO, warfighting integration and communications operations into a single directorate. Gilligan was put in charge of consolidating the three groups, but the leadership of the new organization will be a three-star general. A career Senior Executive Service official will be deputy.

Acting Secretary Michael Dominguez has not yet named a candidate, who will need Senate approval. Published reports earlier this year said Lt. Gen. William Hobbins is the leading candidate. Hobbins is Air Force deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration, and the main architect of the merger.

Gilligan spent the first six years of his career in the private sector and entered government service in 1981. Since then, he has served in various roles with the Air Force and as CIO of the Energy Department from 1998 to 2000. He returned to the Air Force in 2000 as deputy CIO and moved to his position in 2001.

Gilligan has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Duquesne University, a master's degree in computer engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a master's degree in business administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.