Booz Allen appoints Bill Vass as chief technology officer

Booz Allen Hamilton, a federal-focused management and technology consultancy, has appointed William (Bill) Vass as chief technology officer, effective June 17.

Vass will succeed Susan Penfield, who is retiring next month after 30 years with the McLean, VA-headquartered firm.

Vass brings 40+ years of experience in IT, cybersecurity, and robotics to Booz Allen, where he will accelerate solutions in AI, cyber, software, and data.

During his four-decade career, Vass has held CEO, COO, CIO, CISO, and CTO roles at startups, Fortune 100s, and the federal government.

“As we bring transformative technologies to missions of national importance at speed and scale, we welcome Bill’s leadership to further propel our bold innovation agenda,” said Horacio Rozanski, president and CEO of Booz Allen.

Vass joins Booz Allen from AWS, where he spent nearly a decade VP of engineering leading hardware and software development for emerging technology services. Before that, he was president and CEO of Liquid Robotics and president and COO of Sun Microsystems Federal.

Earlier in his career, Vass held several leadership roles in the public service, including senior executive in the office of the CIO at the US Department of Defense and CTO for the US Army personnel information systems command (Persinscom).

He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Texas A&M University.

“Combining a 110-year legacy, deep mission understanding, and advanced technical capabilities, Booz Allen has a singular ability to advance the country’s most critical civilian, defense, and national security priorities with emerging technology,” said Vass. “I’m honored to be returning my focus to these essential missions and look forward to working with Booz Allen’s clients, partners, and talented employees to drive the future forward together.”

Booz Allen earlier this week announced the acquisition of PAR Government Systems Corporation (PGSC), a provider of mobile situational awareness technology to the defense and intelligence sectors.