DIA Director Calls for Enterprise-Level Integration Officer for the Intelligence Community

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is calling for an enterprise-level integration officer who will help improve the intelligence community’s collaboration capabilities on complex challenges.

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, a 2023 Wash100 awardee and a speaker at the Potomac Officers Club’s 7th Annual Intel Summit in 2021, said during the GEOINT Conference on May 24 that the integration officer is like the Department of Defense’s operation officer, who is authorized to move resources to address emerging adversarial threats. Berrier believes the IC should have a similar official.

The DIA its own integration officer in 2021, naming Greg Ryckman as deputy director for global integration, Defense News reported.

Director of National Intelligence and 2023 Wash100 awardee Avril Haines said in a different event that the IC needs to actively promote integration. Haines, who spoke at the Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Intel Summit in 2022, did not directly imply the need for a global integration officer.

Berrier’s comment comes over a month after the National Security Agency asked the IC to form stronger information-sharing partnerships with commercial firms to deter adversarial threats. Rob Joyce, the cybersecurity director of the NSA and a previous Wash100 winner, said private-public partnerships would deliver quicker and more effective responses, increased threat knowledge and different threat perspectives.