CISA loses senior exec Bridget Bean, pre-budget cuts • The Register
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has lost another senior leader: executive director Bridget Bean departed on Wednesday.
Bean, who served as the de facto agency boss for five months between former CISA director Jen Easterly’s departure in January and Madhu Gottumukkala’s appointment to the deputy director post last month, said she was “officially retiring from Federal service once again” in a LinkedIn post.
“My time at CISA has been truly remarkable,” she wrote. “Having had the privilege to serve as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of Director of CISA for 5 months has been a profound honor.”
CISA’s executive leadership page now lists Gottumukkala as its acting director, and the agency remains without a Senate-confirmed leader. President Trump nominated Sean Plankey to serve as the agency’s director, and his nomination is scheduled for consideration by the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today.
However, his appointment still requires a full Senate vote. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has said he will continue to block Plankey’s confirmation until CISA releases an unclassified report on American telecommunications networks’ weak security.
At the time of her departure, Bean had spent three and a half years with CISA and more than three decades with the federal government, including a job as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s third-ranking official.
Before accepting the executive director post, she was CISA’s first chief integration officer. In this position, she “led the integration of the agency’s operations and ensured CISA’s frontline of regional staff seamlessly supported the critical infrastructure that Americans rely on every hour of every day,” according to her bio on the agency’s website.
CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy, in a statement emailed to The Register, said the agency “extends its sincere appreciation to Executive Director Bridget Bean for more than 30 years of distinguished service to the federal government.
“Her leadership has been instrumental in strengthening the Agency’s operational effectiveness, implementing organizational efficiencies, and advancing key priorities aligned with President Trump’s initiatives,” the statement continued. “We are grateful for her commitment, integrity, and impact — and we wish her the very best in her well-earned retirement.”
Bean’s retirement comes during a talent exodus from CISA — and other federal government agencies — with some folks getting fired and others taking the Trump administration’s buyout offer to resign from public service.
As of May 30, the heads of five of CISA’s six operational divisions and six of its 10 regional offices had left the agency, and around 1,000 people, nearly one-third of its total staff, have reportedly left CISA since Trump took office.
One of these individuals previously told The Register about how a “culture of fear started permeating the agency,” under the new administration, and how that hurt the nation’s lead cyber defense agency’s mission.
“Our national security challenges are myriad, and it takes a lot of different perspectives to look at those threats, look at those challenges, look at the whole landscape to understand what needs to be done to protect the nation,” the ex-CISA worker said. “If you’re unable to think freely, think creatively, then you’re doing a disservice to the nation and to our overall security.”
There will likely be more cuts to come as lawmakers debate how many millions of dollars to slash from the agency’s budget: $495 million as the president proposed, or a mere $135 million as a House of Representatives subcommittee has suggested. ®
