Chad Lucas Chief Information Officer, Army & Air Force Exchange Service

Chad Lucas  Profile

Chief Information Officer

Print Biography

Chad Lucas is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Information Officer for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (Exchange), at its headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

The Exchange is a non-appropriated fund entity of the Department of Defense. Established in 1895, the Exchange is the 54th largest retail organization in the U.S. With annual revenues of $8.5 billion, the Exchange employs approximately 29,000 associates, including military personnel.

In the last 10 years, the Exchange benefit has provided $3.5 billion in earnings for critical military Quality-of-Life programs such as outfitting more than 600,000 Warfighters at cost annually, providing school meal support for Department of Defense Education Activity facilities overseas and delivering needed services to locations impacted by natural disasters.

Mr. Lucas’ position is commensurate in rank to a member of the Senior Executive Service. Mr. Lucas provides leadership, technical vision and oversight of information technology strategies to support the Exchange’s organizational initiatives and goals.

The Exchange operates more than 5,000 facilities, including department and convenience stores, restaurants, malls, movie theaters, gas stations and other specialty retail businesses on military installations. The Exchange’s operations span 50 states, four U.S. territories and more than 30 countries. Additionally, the Exchange Credit Program manages a $2.2 billion credit card receivables portfolio.

To support readiness and provide foreign-based service members and their families with U.S. products, the Exchange operates bakeries in Europe and Asia and water bottling plants in Europe under 10 brand licenses from U.S. consumer goods companies, including Wonder Bread, Krispy Kreme and Culligan.

The Exchange recruits, hires, promotes and retains a diverse and inclusive workforce. A major employer of Veterans and military spouses, the Exchange has hired more than 1,900 Wounded Warriors since 2010 and more than 57,000 Veterans and military spouses since 2013.

Mr. Lucas earned a Master of Business Administration in Strategic Leadership from the University of Dallas in 2011. In 2001, he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University.

Mr. Lucas is a native of Dallas. He began his Exchange career as a computer programmer at Exchange headquarters. Since that time, Mr. Lucas has held a variety of Exchange positions, including Midrange Programmer, Application Systems Analyst, Systems Analyst Lead, Application Program Manager, Infrastructure Support Manager, Director of IT Operations and Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer. In May 2020, he was promoted to Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer. He was named to his current position in April 2023.

Mr. Lucas’ performance over his career has earned him multiple Excellence, Superior Accomplishment and Thanks awards.

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