Labor CIO Gundeep Ahluwalia Departs, Deputy Takes Acting Role

Labor Department Deputy CIO Louis Charlier takes over as acting CIO after Gundeep Ahluwalia left the agency for industry this month.

Labor officials confirmed last week to GovCIO Media & Research that Ahluwalia departed the agency. In his eight years as CIO, Ahluwalia prioritized user experience within the agency’s digital transformation effort and spearheaded introducing plain language for unemployment applications, making services mobile-friendly and leveraging automation to improve service delivery.

During Ahluwalia’s tenure, the agency received funding for three projects under the Technology Modernization Fund, including the Labor Certificate Processing Modernization, Data Modernization and PERM Visa Modernization.

Ahluwalia also spent some of his career at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and over a decade in industry.

Charlier, who has served as the agency’s deputy CIO for nearly 20 years, officially took over as the acting CIO. Charlier has more than 30 years of senior executive and IT professional experience in private and federal service. Earlier this year, he was named the agency’s chief artificial intelligence officer before current CAIO Mangala Kuppa assumed the role.

IT services company NuAxis Innovations said Monday Ahluwalia joined as executive vice president and chief innovation officer.