Darryl E. Peek II

Darryl Peek must be as exhausted as he is accomplished. As director of operations at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for strategic planning, financial operations, human capital, communications and portfolio management for three DHS divisions.

Those divisions — Enterprise Architecture, Digital Innovation and Solutions, and Strategic Technology Management — help steer the sprawling department’s IT vision and technology.

As though that’s not enough, Peek also leads several major technology initiatives, including Network 2.0 for the OneNet wide-area network and agile pilot integrated program teams, and serves as a contracting officer’s representative for engineering and technology support services contracts.

In addition, he helped coordinate DHS’ Cyber and Tech Job Fair, shares his expertise at a long list of cybersecurity and agile training programs at DHS, and is a popular keynote speaker and panelist at industry conferences.

Colleagues and supervisors applaud his “change agent” role and say Peek is up to the challenge of his many responsibilities. They say his hard-charging work ethic and motivation reflect his previous experience with demanding teams at DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate and the lessons he learned while working with the CIOs of 23 agencies to take advantage of DHS’ Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.

Click here for more on all the 2017 Rising Stars