Maria Roat, who currently serves as CIO of the Small Business Administration (SBA), is being promoted to deputy Federal CIO at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of the month, MeriTalk has learned.
“We’re thrilled to have Maria join [the Office of the Federal CIO] and the OMB team,” Federal CIO Suzette Kent said of the transition. “The experience and leadership Maria brings to the role of Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer will be an asset to efforts to shape a secure, modern, and data driven government.”
The position has been vacant since former Deputy Federal CIO Margie Graves left for the private sector at the end of last year.
In Roat’s nearly four years at SBA, she has led several IT modernization and cloud initiatives that helped boost the agency’s FITARA scorecard rating. Roat also led the agency’s quick shift to telework and new small business loan portals amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“I am most proud of the entire IT team, the hours they have put in, and the work they’ve done that’s all about the mission and serving small businesses,” she told MeriTalk about SBA’s recent IT accomplishments. “The work they’ve done and what they’ve turned out in a short period of time is just incredible.”
