Both the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) named new CIOs this month. Henry “Jamie” Holcombe will join the USPTO as CIO on Feb. 25 and Keith B. Vaughn has already begun his work with the USITC.
Holcombe joins the USPTO after a lengthy career in the private sector, including stints at Harris Corporation, Universal Service Administrative Company, Globix Corporation, TJ Westlake, and Visium Technologies. Prior to his work in the private sector, Holcombe was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
“Our legacy IT systems are old and it is well beyond time to undertake a fundamental stabilization and modernization effort,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Andrei Iancu. “As our new CIO, Jamie will have a unique opportunity to help the USPTO improve these systems and transition our agency to state-of-the-art technology.”
In a Feb. 1 release from USITC, the Commission announced that Keith B. Vaughn made the jump from acting CIO to permanent CIO. Vaughn served as acting CIO from January 2018 through September 2018. Prior to his government service, Vaughn worked at several private sector firms, including The Ambit Group, SI International, and Zen Technology.
As Acting CIO, Vaughn developed and managed the agency’s IT budget, worked to ensure IT requirements were met, strengthened the agency’s network security, and directed IT modernization and enhancement efforts. Initially joining the USITC in 2011, Vaughn started as a chief data architect with extensive experience as a senior government contractor with several private sector firms.
