The administration has nominated Gary Shatswell to serve as Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Shatswell is currently serving as a Senior Advisor to the VA Secretary, placing him inside the department’s leadership team ahead of this nomination. If confirmed, he would take on responsibility for one of the federal government’s largest IT organizations, supporting healthcare systems, benefits delivery, and enterprise infrastructure across the department.
His background is primarily in the private sector, where he has held CIO roles in large, complex organizations. Most recently, he served as Group CIO for Unilever’s Prestige division, where he built and led a centralized technology organization supporting global operations, cybersecurity, data, and enterprise systems. Prior to that, he was CIO at Paula’s Choice, where he led technology strategy, platform modernization, and international expansion efforts.
Earlier roles include senior IT leadership positions at Sur La Table, Sizzling Platter, and Getty Images, with a focus on operations, e-commerce platforms, and enterprise systems.
The nomination comes as the VA continues work on major IT efforts, including modernization of legacy systems, ongoing electronic health record implementation, and strengthening cybersecurity across the enterprise.
If confirmed, Shatswell would be responsible for overseeing these efforts and managing the department’s IT strategy, systems, and operations at scale.
