On January 21, 2009, Charles McClam was appointed the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for Policy for the USDA, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). He is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for Information Technology Policy, Cyber Security Policy, Capital Planning and Enterprise Architecture for USDA’s information technology program. This includes providing the policy leadership and oversight of a diverse, mission critical information technology portfolio that supports twenty-nine USDA agencies.

Prior to joining USDA, Mr. McClam served as the Acting and Deputy Chief Information Officer at the United States Small Business Administration. In that position, he was responsible for overseeing the management and operations of the Agency’s information technology enterprise, which included the enterprise architecture, IT governance processes, cyber security and privacy; data center and telecommunication operations; and IT infrastructure support for 79 geographically dispersed field locations throughout the continental United States, Guam and Puerto Rico. He also led the effort early on in his role as the Acting CIO to modernize the Agency’s aging COBOL Loan Accounting Systems mainframe system that supports a $90 billion loan portfolio. Mr. McClam served as the managing partner and executive lead responsible for implementing a Government-wide, multi-million dollar Business Gateway IT solution, which provides a One Stop web portal solution for small businesses seeking to obtain Federal, State, and local regulatory and compliance information.

Mr. McClam served as the lead Internal Revenue Service (IRS) executive responsible for the successful Year 2000 code renovation initiative. At the Department of Justice, he served as the Assistant Director, Information Management & Security Staff, where he managed and provided oversight of the information technology requirements for the Department’s major law enforcement and litigation components. In addition, he served in several key positions at the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, where he oversaw the design, development and deployment of multi-million dollar defense and intelligence systems that supported the warfighting capabilities of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Agencies, and the Intelligence Community.

A native of South Carolina, McClam completed his undergraduate studies and went on to complete his Master of Public Administration from the Troy State University. McClam also attended and completed advanced graduate degree studies in Information Systems Management from the University of Southern California. And, he attended advanced management studies as a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management.