U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten today announced the appointment of Thomas N. Flagg as chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Education, effective October 6. Flagg succeeds Luis R. Lopez, who served as the Department’s CIO from December 2022 until this year.
Flagg will join the Department from the U.S. Department of Labor where he serves as director of Labor’s Directorate of Business Application Services.
“I am thrilled to welcome Thomas Flagg as chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Education,” Deputy Secretary Marten said. “His extensive experience in business and information technology and proven track record of driving innovation will be invaluable as we continue to advance our mission and enhance our digital capabilities across the entire Department. Mr. Flagg’s leadership will be instrumental in guiding our agency through the complexities of today’s technological landscape, ensuring that we deliver the highest level of service to our nation’s schools, colleges and universities, students, borrowers, and families.”
Thomas N. Flagg has over two decades of business and information technology knowledge, both from government and the private sector. At the Labor Department, he led a team of about 120 federal and 600 contract staff in building and delivering business applications to the 26 Labor subcomponent mission agencies and the public.
Before joining the Senior Executive Service, he directed information technology for Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. He was also a supervisory IT specialist and technical and management advisor to the director of IT within Labor’s Office of Workers Compensation Programs.
Until joining federal service in June 2013, Thomas held numerous IT-related positions in the private sector, including at Recorded Books (the largest manufacturer of recorded audio), Health Objects (a subsidiary of institutional pharmacy firm OmniCare), ZonaFinanciera.com (a Latin American financial services firm based in Fairfax, Va.), GTE, and Intel Corporation.
Flagg was born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area. He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Howard University, and later a master in business administration and master in business management with a focus on information systems management from the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business. He is married and has two children.
