Brian Epley serves as the Chief Information Officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He is responsible for leading business transformation and IT strategy for new digital capabilities, streamlining current operations and improving overall efficiencies and performance of Commerce’s IT ecosystem — all with the goal of enabling the Commerce mission to achieve excellence and innovation with our partners and stakeholders.

Brian is a seasoned leader with more than 25 years’ experience across public and private sectors. Throughout his career he has distinguished himself as an entrepreneur and innovative change leader with the unique ability to deliver strategic value-add outcomes.

Brian previously served as the Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer with the U.S. Department of Energy (2022-24), where he led the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and formation of the OCIO’s strategic direction for the protection and modernization of IT, cybersecurity, data usage, and digitization to serve the Department’s mission.

Brian previously served in key executive leadership positions with the Environmental Protection Agency (2016-22) including Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Deputy CIO, and Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Environmental Information. Brian led many strategic initiatives transforming Enterprise IT Shared Services improving the value of IT. Prior federal and state government roles include:

• Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 Technical Director for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Information and Technology, and
• IT Services Director serving the Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Governor [for 3 terms], and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

Brian also held various leadership roles in the private sector at the Computer Sciences Corporation, Northrop Grumman, North Highland Worldwide Consulting, and as the founding President of InterSolve-IT; focused on enterprise transformation, research and development, IT, and enterprise operations. Brian’s private sector experience spans the Consulting, Healthcare, Hospitality, Retail, and Transportation industries.

Brian serves on the American Council for Technology Executive Committee and previously served on the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business Society Board of Directors and Virginia State University IT Advisory Council Board of Directors. Brian received the Department of Veterans Affairs honor award for, “Getting to Green” on the President’s Management Agenda of Human Capital and the “Top 40 Under 40 Award” for service in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Brian holds a Master of Business Administration degree in International Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems, from the Virginia Commonwealth University. Brian was also selected and worked as a Ph.D. candidate for Information Security Assurance at George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Engineering and Computing.