Robert Cardillo

Cardillo earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University in 1983 and a Master of Arts in National Security Studies from Georgetown University in 1988. He is an alumnus of the Council for Excellence in Government, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Capstone Course, and Harvard University's Program for Senior Managers in Government. Cardillo is the recipient of the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive, Vice President's Hammer Award, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award, DIA's Analyst of the Year, Director DIA's Intelligence Award, and the NGA's Distinguished Civilian Service Award.[9]

A runner who has completed five Marine Corps Marathons, Cardillo resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Cardillo began his career with the DIA in 1983 as an imagery analyst. In May 2000 he was selected to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service. Throughout his career, he has served in a variety of leadership positions within the Intelligence Community. In the summer of 2009, Cardillo served as the Acting J2, a first for a civilian, in support of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[9]

In May 2019 Cardillo was named a Distinguished Geospatial Fellow at Saint Louis University in which he will advise on strategy for geospatial growth in St. Louis. His role includes advising the growth of GeoSLU, Saint Louis University's geospatial research, training, and innovation initiative, and advising the Cortex Innovation Community on geospatial strategy, innovation, and commercialization.

Cardillo's leadership at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was marked by numerous issues that involved his leadership team and also his decision to have a family friend, Bobby Knight, deliver an address to the workforce on leadership. In 2015, Bobby Knight visited the agency and during that visit was accused by 4 female employees of inappropriate behavior. The result was an FBI investigation into the matter. While the FBI did not bring charges, the incident was a concern that affected agency employee engagement and morale.[10]

In February 2019 the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General published a report that found Ms. Ellen Ardrey, the agency Director of Human Capital, circumvented department policy and wasted government resources. Ms. Ardrey's circumvention of policy resulted in a cost to the government of $280,000. Specifically, the investigation determined that Ms. Ardrey improperly permitted NGA senior officials to downgrade themselves to non-senior official positions within the agency for one pay period, and then paid them $40,000 each as buyout incentives to leave the agency. In part Ms. Ardrey's acts were motivated by her desire to implement Director Cardillo's organizational vision.[11]

Also in February 2019 the DoD Inspector General concluded an investigation of Mr. Cardillo's Deputy, Justin Poole. The investigation concluded that Mr. Poole engaged in an inappropriate and unprofessional relationship with a subordinate from July 2018 through November 2018.[12] He was placed on Administrative leave on 27 February 2019.[13]

Media related to Robert Cardillo at Wikimedia Commons