Profile
Mr. Les Benito currently serves as the Cloud Lead of the DoD CIO (Information Enterprise) Cloud & Software Modernization directorate. In this role, Mr. Benito oversees security, acquisition, and optimization of cloud for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Before the joining the DoD CIO, Mr. Benito served as the Chief of the Product Management Office for the Defense Information System Agency’s (DISA) J9 Hosting and Compute (HaC). In this role, Mr. Benito oversaw security, technical, and user engagement specialists for the HaC and the team responsible for the execution of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract. Prior to this role, Mr. Benito was Director of Operations for DISA’s Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO), where he led cloud capability development and delivery, including for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud program. In 2020, Mr. Benito served as the CCPO team lead for the rapid, Department-wide deployment of the Commercial Virtual Remote environment in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 health emergency: the largest Microsoft Teams deployment ever, servicing over 1.3 million DOD users.
In a previous role, Mr. Benito served as the Director of Public Web for the Defense Media Activity. In this role, he ran the Public Web program for DOD, which included 680 of DOD's public websites that are still used as primary communication tools by the Secretary of Defense, military service secretaries, and commanders around the world. With over 4.5 million visitors per week, these DOD sites continue to be some of the most popular government sites on the Internet. Mr. Benito was also DOD representative on the Federal Web Manager's Council, an interagency group of senior federal government web managers who collaborate to share common challenges, ideas, best practices, and ways to improve the online delivery of U.S. Government information and services.
Sessions