The Defense Department said Monday Robert Cardillo will be the next director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) as current director Letitia Long announced her decision to retire, effective later this year.
Long took the reins at NGA in August 2010, helping shift the agency from providing static products, such as maps, to providing geospatial intelligence services that enable users to access information that provides “time and place” context, DoD said. Before NGA, Long served as the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and as DoD’s deputy undersecretary for intelligence; as deputy director of Naval Intelligence and as executive director for Intelligence Community (IC) Affairs, the predecessor organization to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Cardillo currently serves as the deputy director for national intelligence for intelligence integration and previously served as the deputy director of DIA, among other positions. Stephanie O’Sullivan is the principal deputy director of national intelligence.
An industry source said Cardillo is a “solid choice” to run the NGA considering his background and roots in the agency. He is close to the director of national intelligence (DNI) and supportive of the role of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery plays in the geospatial intelligence tradecraft, the source said.
Cardillo will formally succeed Long in October, DoD said.