NSTIC chief Jeremy Grant leaving government

Jeremy Grant, the senior National Institute of Standards and Technology executive who has led the development of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace for the last four years, plans to leave government in April, FedScoop has learned.

Grant announced his plans Wednesday in an email to senior members of the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group, a public-private partnership funded by NIST to help develop policies and standards for trusted online identities.

“It’s with very mixed feelings that I’m announcing my plans to leave NIST,” Grant wrote. “Leading the implementation of the NSTIC is hands down the best job I’ve ever had; I’m truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to serve in this role, and to have had the chance to work with such a talented and dedicated team.”

Michael Garcia, who currently serves as deputy director of NSTIC, will serve as acting director until a permanent replacement for Grant is named.

Grant’s decision comes just months after the NIST-funded IDESG experienced one of its first significant internal disruptions since its founding in 2012. In a flurry of emails in December, Grant outlined increasing concerns about “repeated personal attacks” and “abusive character attacks” by some IDESG members against other volunteers.

“The conduct of people in IDESG has been a big issue for well over a year now,” Grant wrote in a Dec. 15 email addressed to Kaliya Hamlin, a San Francisco-based technologist and member of IDESG since 2012. “And it’s been a cancer on the organization. I’ve had dozens of emails and phone calls from people letting me know that they were pulling back from participating in IDESG because they could no longer justify spending their hours in an organization that tolerated such unprofessional behavior,” Grant wrote.

Grant said his last day at NIST would be in April. He declined to say what his plans are or where he might be going next.