Derrick Pledger has been named Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO). In this new role, Pledger will lead the company’s technology modernization and enterprise IT strategies to spur growth while delivering seamless customer experience (CX) and improved service delivery for government agencies.
“Derrick brings a wealth of experience to Maximus as a noted leader in technology modernization and strategic leadership, and we are excited about adding those skills to our talented executive team,” said Bruce Caswell, President and CEO of Maximus. “The CDIO role supersedes the Chief Information Officer role and will leverage innovation and emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to optimize business processes for our government partners.”
Pledger has more than two decades of experience in the government technology industry, with a strong history of success across application development, cloud computing, data analytics, cyber resilience, governance, and technology modernization. He joins Maximus after serving as CDIO at Leidos, where Pledger successfully led a global team of technologists, developers, enterprise architects, and service delivery experts responsible for managing a digital ecosystem supporting more than 47,000 employees.
“Maximus has positioned itself at the forefront of technology modernization across state, federal, and international government agencies in its delivery of business services and technology solutions. This new role is a tremendous opportunity to join a growing team and lead it to even greater heights,” said Pledger. “There is unlimited potential as we combine our award-winning technology capabilities with a talented staff of technology professionals to design implementation strategies for agencies, deliver enhanced service, and more effectively support their missions.”
Pledger is a U.S. Army Veteran who served multiple tours of duty overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa in both public and private sector roles. His career accomplishments span a wide range of technologies and capabilities with a common focus on outcome-based delivery. Reflecting his commitment to talent development, Pledger recently implemented a broad upskilling program for CDIO personnel in analytics, cloud, and AI.
Those accomplishments have led to a host of honors for Pledger, as he received the Modern Day Technology Leader Award in 2017 and has been named to several Top Execs lists for Cloud and CIO leaders. He also serves on the Pamplin College of Business, Business Information Technology Advisory Board at Virginia Tech, the Customer Advisory Board for Rancher Government Solutions, and the Advisory Board for CapitalCIO.