Army CIO-to-be details agenda
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Jeffrey Sorenson sees leaner procurement, development as key to technology integration, advancement.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.'Today's complex global environment ' in addition to an ongoing engagement with an adaptable adversary ' requires the Army to develop a communications architecture flexible enough to respond to evolving threats, said Jeffrey Sorenson, special assistant to the secretary of Defense and the Army's chief information officer/G-6-designate.'The Army has changed, and we no longer do things the way we used to,' Sorenson said this week in a speech at the LandWarNet 2007 conference held by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.In the past three years, the Army produced more than 5,000 requirements documents for procuring information technology systems, but 'we're no longer in the business of waiting for these grand requirement documents to be written' before proceeding with technology upgrades, Sorenson said. 'A lot of the advancements today can be done by soldiers and industry working together. When you put soldiers and engineers together, magic happens.'Sorenson said his first priority as Army CIO will be providing soldiers with the computing and communications tools they need in the field. Additional priorities he identified will be improving the pace of technology integration, consolidating IT systems at area processing centers and fixed regional hubs, securing the Army's networks and data at rest, defining the Army's response to cyberwarfare, and transitioning from today's Army Battle Communications System to the Future Communications System.Sorenson has been deputy for acquisition and systems management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASAALT) since 2004. Before that, he was program executive officer for tactical missiles. Sorenson will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general if the Senate confirms him as Army CIO.Although Sorenson has limited experience with communications and IT, he has had extensive practice as an acquisitions executive. His past positions include director of the acquisition directorate at the Office of the Director of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers; senior military assistant to the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics; and assistant deputy of systems management and horizontal technology integration at ASAALT.He has also been director of program control at the Joint Tactical Fusion Program Office, director of science and technology integration at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Development, product manager at the Ground Based Common Sensor-Light program, and project manager for Night Vision/Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition.Sorenson has a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University. He is a graduate of the program manager and executive program manager courses at the Defense System Management College, the Armed Forces Staff College and the Army War College.
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