Welcome back Mr. Howell!

John Howell, our new Assistant Program Executive Officer for Networks, Cyber & Services, comes to PEO EIS from PEO Soldier, where he was the Project Director for Soldier Systems & Integration and lead for adaptive squad architecture. He spent 23 years in the Army, including 10 years in the Acquisition Corps. Howell finished his Army career at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, supporting PEO EIS as the Product Manager for the Defense Messaging System. He subsequently worked for EIS as a defense contractor and civilian. A California native, he does martial arts—Chinese Kempo—when he has time. He answered seven questions about his career, life and values.

Why is it good to be back at PEO EIS?
Our mission is critical to Army success. Whether it is enabling readiness, modernization and reform or Multi-Domain Operations or supporting Cross Functional Teams, by the nature of the work that we do PEO EIS directly supports many of the Army’s critical priorities. Between network modernization, enterprise services, defensive cyber and enterprise-resource-planning systems, we touch every single Soldier every single day.

I have the utmost respect for our PEO leadership and workforce because of the complexity of what this organization does and how well we do it. Likewise, in talking with many of our industry partners, other PEOs and customers, they feel the same way.

Describe the PEO EIS culture.
PEO EIS is innovative and acquisition-savvy. We have to be innovative because our portfolio—including defensive cyber, the cloud, SATCOM, infrastructure, agile software development, you name it—incorporates technology that changes on a much faster scale than most other acquisition programs. You really learn to appreciate this when you look at the scale of the projects for which we are responsible.

Who inspires you?
Our ultimate customer, the Soldier.

Describe yourself in three words. 
Willing to learn. Despite having been in multiple program offices, I still often find myself challenged by fully understanding both new technologies as well as the integration of those technologies into larger systems or processes. That’s where you just have to dig in and try to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time…not always easy to do, but it’s essential.

What did you learn in the Army that helps you succeed in your current role?
I learned how the Army works and how to communicate with other Soldiers. In this business you have to be able to talk to the operational community in ways they appreciate. Many Army senior leaders are very technically savvy, but you don’t want to bore and confuse them with a bunch of technical jargon that has no bearing on their problem. You need to get to the point so they can make a decision. The Army teaches you how senior leaders—at all levels—think.

What advice do you have for industry?
The Army is making a concerted effort to be more innovative. We want to learn from industry’s innovation culture. Companies need to tell us when we are holding them back or doing something that isn’t innovative.

What is the best advice you received?
In the immortal words of my first company commander, CPT Steve Edwards, when he turned over my platoon to me, he said, “John, whatever you do, don’t screw this up.” Good advice!