In October 2012, Mr. Robert Edson added the duties of Chief Information Officer to his existing porfolio of responsibilities within the Vice President for Enterprise Development position. In this capacity, he is responsible for strategic and transformational programs across the corporation, including corporate research, knowledge management, and technical workforce shaping. He also serves as the Director of the Applied Systems Thinking (ASysT) Institute, a position he has held since October 2009. ASysT works to advance the application of systems thinking principles in the fields of national security, homeland security, intelligence, energy, environment, education, and health care. As Director, Mr. Edson leads broad efforts to build the community, capability, and competency related to applied systems thinking.

Upon joining Analytic Services Inc. in 2005, Mr. Edson served in a number of technical and management positions and was responsible for overseeing and conducting science, technical, and engineering support to a variety of programs, including ANSER support to the Strategic Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Mr. Edson also held the analyst position of Fellow within the corporation.

From 1998 to 2005, Mr. Edson served in a progression of industry technical analysis and management positions in the defense industry, including Los Alamos Technical Associates and the Environmental Institute of Michigan/Altarum, supporting a broad portfolio of policy, technical, and science research.

Previously, Mr. Edson served in the U.S. Navy, where he began his professional career as an officer in 1983. During his career in the Navy, he filled billets in both the Surface Warfare and Geophysics communities. Mr. Edson served as the Communications Officer and Main Propulsion Assistant on the USS Trippe (FF-1075), as Staff Oceanographer for the Office of Naval Intelligence, and as Scientific Program Officer in the Office of Naval Research and the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security.

In addition to research in applied systems thinking, Mr. Edson has been active in several technical areas including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives (CBRNE) and environmental sensor development, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) counterproliferation, radioactive waste and nuclear materials management, and environmental management and assessment. He has contributed to or led several national science and technology studies and analyses including five NATO Science and CCMS committee studies.

Mr. Edson frequently provides lectures and briefings on systems thinking. He is the author of a monograph titled System Thinking. Applied. He has authored or coauthored numerous papers and book chapters on a variety of topics. Mr. Edson is currently a member of the faculty of the Stevens Institute of Technology and teaches courses on systems thinking and enterprise architecting.

Mr. Edson earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from George Mason University (GMU) and a master of science degree in physical oceanography and meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in systems engineering, also at GMU.