Former Central Intelligence Agency senior officer Kirk McClain has been appointed chief security officer of Accenture’s federal business.

As CSO, McClain is set to take the reins of Accenture Federal Services’ security and intelligence directorate, with responsibilities such as facilitating international management and protection of AFS locations, assets and data, the Arlington, Virginia-based subsidiary said Monday.

“Kirk’s background and expertise will play a key role in sustaining and further developing our security organization and priorities,” remarked John Goodman, CEO of Accenture Federal.

Goodman, who is a five-time recipient of the Wash100 Award, also said that McClain will liaise with various executive team members in his new role, as well as with other facets of Accenture in order to maintain the most secure corporate environment possible and anticipate future threats.

McClain worked for over 34 years at the CIA before retiring in 2018. He occupied a number of ascending leadership roles in both domestic and foreign capacities. After concluding his stint at the CIA, McClain began working for Pacific Architects & Engineers as chief security officer and vice president of corporate security.

In the latter role, the executive handled and safeguarded a business with about 22,000 employees across over 60 countries. His core capabilities include program management, process improvement and customer service to government clients.

At AFS, McClain will also be in charge of supervising corporate risk and ensuring that business activities comply with security mandates and ordinances.

Expressing excitement at the career development, McClain characterized his new colleagues at Accenture Federal as “ dedicated to doing what is right and in the best interest of service to our federal clients, their critical requirements, and protection of broader national security interests.”

The hire of McClain follows AFS’ April addition of Shawn Wells as a member of the cybersecurity team. Wells will likely report to McClain in his cybersecurity duties.

Michael Morgan, formerly a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received Senate confirmation to serve as assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction and deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Morgan, who brings more than two decades of scientific leadership experience to the position, will oversee agency-wide operations related to weather, water, climate and ocean observations, NOAA said Friday.

“His decades of world-renowned atmospheric and oceanic scientific expertise and dedicated service to the community make him ideally qualified to help guide NOAA’s lifesaving observation and prediction activities,” said Gina Raimondo, secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Morgan said he will work closely with the NOAA team to expand the nation’s earth system prediction capabilities, develop a diverse workforce and create tools designed to utilize authoritative weather and climate data more effectively.

He previously served as the division director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences and a senior legislative fellow on energy and environmental issues in the office of Sen. Benjamin Cardin.

Barry Grabow, acting mission area executive for national health at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory since August 2021, has been appointed to the role on a full-time basis.

He aims to ensure that the mission area’s two program areas are aligned with its strategy of finding approaches to make health care available to people anytime, anywhere, the Maryland-based research and development organization said Friday.

Grabow said the mission area will draw insights from other goals and form alliances with health care stakeholders to support the strategy.

National Health is one of the 12 mission areas of APL that is centered on providing health protection and assurance for warfighters and the general public.

Grabow joined APL in 1993 as a postdoctoral researcher and later held leadership roles such as deputy mission area executive, branch supervisor, program manager and group supervisor.

Over the course of his career, Grabow has gained extensive experience developing radio frequency circuit technology. The former JHU instructor focused on sensor development and prototyping projects during his acting mission area executive stint.

Col. Jeremy Raley officially succeeded Col. Eric Felt as head of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate and the AFRL Phillips Research Site during a change-of-command ceremony that took place Wednesday at Kirtland AF Base in New Mexico.

AFRL said Friday that Raley assumed his dual-hatted role after serving as director of the strategic capabilities group within the U.S. Space Force’s Space Rapid Capabilities Office.

“Raley’s credentials in science and technology are long-standing, attaining a doctorate early in his career and applying that knowledge as a bench-level scientist,” AFRL Commander Heather Pringle said.

“His assignments have been diverse, spanning research and development and acquisition, and an operational deployment where he was embedded with warfighters, giving him the opportunity to see how our systems and technology work in the field.”

Prior to his role at SpRCO, Raley served as a division chief within the space vehicles directorate where he oversaw three spacecraft missions and research efforts.

Felt, who led the laboratory’s space vehicles directorate for four years, is now USSF’s deputy executive director for the space architecture, science and technology directorate located at the Pentagon.