Navy makes personnel moves with IT in mind
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Navy secretary John Dalton this month named Dan Porter to take over as the service's chief information officer. Porter, the former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations for logistics, replaced Ann Miller and began work last week. Miller is now only the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, electronic warfare and space programs, or DASN(C4I). She had held both posts.
Navy secretary John Dalton this month named Dan Porter to take over as the
services chief information officer.
Porter, the former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations for logistics, replaced
Ann Miller and began work last week.
Miller is now only the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications,
computers, intelligence, electronic warfare and space programs, or DASN(C4I). She had held
both posts.
The moves are part of a reorganization of the Navys top systems shop. Navy
officials said Dalton wants to lessen the CIOs workload and create separate
organizations for the CIO and C4I programs.
We have recognized an increase in challenges facing us on the information
technology front over the past year, Dalton said in a written statement about the
reassignments.
Porter has Navy systems and procurement experience. From November 1994 to February, he
was the services acquisition reform executive.
Before that, Porter was the program executive officer for undersea warfare.
Porter has a bachelors in physics from Bethany College, a masters in ocean
engineering from Columbia University and a masters in engineering management from
Catholic University.
Porter said his top priorities will be the year 2000 problem, information assurance and
systems interoperability, respectively.
The job was getting huge, and it just seems natural to put more hands and heads
to work, he said. Ann needs to pay a lot of attention to the acquisition
programs, which are burgeoning, and needs to work on that side of the house.
Miller will continue to oversee the Navys C4I programs, particularly the area of
space programs, in which she has much experience.
Dalton said the move is not a reflection on Millers ability to do both jobs.
The Navy has benefited greatly from Dr. Millers strong C4I experience,
Dalton said. This move will allow Dr. Miller to concentrate her tremendous talents
and energies on bringing fully tested operational systems to the fleet.
Miller was unavailable for comment. But deputy CIO Ron Turner said Dalton gave her the
choice of taking either the CIO or the DASN(C4I) job.
Miller chose the DASN(C4I) job because of her background, Turner said.
Miller took over the CIO post early this year. She previously was director of the
Defense Research and Engineering Office.
Before that, she spent 13 years at Motorola Inc., much of it working on global
satellite communications projects. Miller has a bachelors degree and a doctorate in
mathematics from Saint Louis University.
In their new posts, Porter will report to Dalton, and Miller will report to the
assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
Since the Navy created the CIO Office in June 1997, the job has had two chiefs.
Marvin Langston was appointed the departments first CIO but left after three
months on the job to become director of information systems at the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency. He became deputy CIO for the Defense Department early this year.
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