Vermont Digital Services Secretary Denise Reilly-Hughes to leave role for private sector

Agency of Digital Services Secretary Denise Reilly-Hughes speaks before the House Appropriations Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

" data-large-file="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/denise-reilly-hughes-1-20250212-1200x792.jpg" /> Agency of Digital Services Secretary Denise Reilly-Hughes speaks before the House Appropriations Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

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Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.

Denise Reilly-Hughes, who has led Vermont’s Agency of Digital Services since 2023, will leave her role next week to take a job in the private sector, Gov. Phil Scott announced Wednesday.

The statement from Scott’s office praised the outgoing secretary’s work shoring up the state’s cybersecurity systems and exploring potential uses for artificial intelligence. The agency’s deputy, Andrea DeLaBruere, will serve as interim secretary after Reilly-Hughes’ last day on Oct. 16.

Scott created the Agency of Digital Services in 2017 to “provide more efficient support for state employees, better customer service to Vermonters, and more accountability,” the governor said in Wednesday’s release. “Under Denise’s leadership, we’ve been able to make progress in each of those areas.”

Reilly-Hughes’ departure comes as several significant IT projects are underway for Scott’s administration including a $70 million overhaul of the state’s human resources and finance systems.

Officials also recently initiated an agreement with AI giant Anthropic, using a cutting-edge tool to test the state’s online security, Vermont Public reported last month. Recent months have seen a number of sophisticated cyberattacks on groups of public-sector employees in Vermont and across the country.

The leadership transition should not affect the timeline for any of the state’s IT projects, Chelsea Cockrell, a spokesperson for the Agency of Digital Services, wrote in an email Wednesday.

Reilly-Hughes’ next professional role has not been publicly announced, she added. Scott’s office did not respond to a request for further details on the transition before a Wednesday deadline.

“I’m proud of the foundation we’ve built at ADS,” Reilly-Hughes said in Wednesday’s release, “and even more excited about what it makes possible for Vermont.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Digital Services Secretary Denise Reilly-Hughes to leave role for private sector.