Homeland Security CISO, Air Force AI Chief to Retire This Month

March will feature two high-profile departures within the federal IT community, as two longtime leaders will step down after long careers in federal service. Department of Homeland Security Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Ken Bible and Air Force Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO), Eileen Vidrine will retire before the end of the month, according to a report by Federal News Network.  

Ken Bible has served as the Department of Homeland Security’s CISO since 2021 and has been in federal government for nearly four decades. According to LinkedIn, Bible’s final day in federal service will be March 29. Bible started his public service in 1985 and held roles within the Marine Corps and Charleston Public Shipyard during the decades of his career. During his time at DHS, Bible led an effort to evaluate cyber hygiene amongst existing contractors and focused on mitigating supply chain risks.  

Eileen Vidrine, who has served as the Air Force’s CDAO since January 2023, has been in federal government since 1986. During her 38 years in federal service, she held a number of jobs including within the Office of Management and Budget, the Joint Military Intelligence College and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Vidrine is expected to retire on March 31.

Vidrine took the CDAO role over from Maj. Gen John Olson. While serving in that position, she led the department’s push to innovate across the Air and Space forces and become “AI-ready” by 2025 and “AI competitive” in operations by 2027. 

Vidrine was an advocate of unlocking the potential of the workforce through testing small-scale innovations before developing them within the broader department.  

“You have to build your champions. When you let your champion shine, the velocity that you can get moving forward is pretty phenomenal,” Vidrine said at an event for CAIOs in December 2023. “I think everybody in this room has great capability in your workforce that you just don’t know about yet because they’re doing one thing. So a little [natural language processing] on some HR records can actually create amazing insight.”