National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Director Letitia Long on Monday announced she will step down from her post at the helm of the dual-hatted support and national intelligence agency come October.
She will be succeeded by Robert Cardillo, who currently serves as the Deputy Director for Intelligence Integration (DDII) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) — a post he established in 2010 to facilitate information sharing and collaboration within the Intelligence Community.
Long will have accrued four years leading NGA by the time of her October retirement.
She has been instrumental most notably to the agency’s shift from providing static products to providing geospatial intelligence services for military operations, geospatial intelligence operations and NGA analaytic products, data and models, the agency wrote in Monday’s press statement.
“I am very pleased that my successor will be Robert Cardillo,” Long wrote Monday in a message the NGA workforce. “Robert is a truly distinguished intelligence professional who knows the intelligence community, NGA and many of our employees well.”
Cardillo began his intelligence career “as a member of the NGA family” serving director terms within the NGA’s Analysis and Production group and its Source Operations and Management division, he wrote in a Defense Department press statement.
Area executives familiar with the agency have indicated they are confident with Cardillo’s appointment.
“Robert Cardillo will continue the tradition of exceptional directors for NGA,” said Robert Zitz, the senior vice president for the National Security Sector at Leidos. “He brings great vision, deep analytical roots and strong leadership skills which will serve the agency well.”
Cardillo, who will formally take on his post in October 2014, said he looks forward to building upon the progress the NGA has undergone with Long at the helm
“As much I’ve enjoyed working with the DNI to help him integrate our IC, I look forward to teaming with the talented men and women of NGA as we continue to improve our analytic service to NGA’s wide-range of military and civilian customers,” he said.
WashingtonExec interviewed Long last summer at the three-year mark of her tenure. She told us about the changing role of NGA within the broader IC and shared her advice for young intel officers, among other topics.
