INDIAN-AMERICAN Dr Raj Iyer has taken over as the first Chief Information Officer of the US Army, after the Pentagon created the position in July 2020. One of the highest ranking Indian-American civilians in the US Department of Defence, Iyer, who holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Army and directs representation of the secretary in matters relating to information management/information technology (IT), the Pentagon said in a statement.

 

Equivalent in rank to a three-star General, Iyer will supervise an annual budget of USD 16 billion for the US Army’s IT operations. Over 15,000 civilians and military personnel posted across 100 countries work under him. Iyer will direct the execution of policies and programmes to modernise the US Army to achieve digital overmatch against near peer adversaries such as China and Russia. The Army has committed to leveraging advanced technologies such as cloud computing, robotics and artificial intelligence as critical enablers for future war fighting through a concept called multi-domain operations. Previously, Iyer was partner and managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he led multiple technology programs supporting government clients.

 

Over the course of his 26-year career, Iyer has supported a range of defence and commercial clients on a number of complex enterprise transformation challenges, including strategy, innovation and modernisation. Iyer, originally a native of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, grew up in Bengaluru and completed his undergraduate studies at National Institute of Technology Tirchi.