PEO Perspective: July 2023

Summer has really just begun, and it's already been a busy season filled with transitioning leaders here at PEO EIS. Most of our ceremonies took place in June, as noted in my last Perspective, but we have a few more to note for the month of July:

AROUND HEADQUARTERS

A hearty welcome back to Rob Schadey, who returned to PEO EIS last month as assistant program executive officer (APEO). As APEO, Rob is the lead change agent responsible for synchronizing and integrating our more than 71 acquisition programs through stakeholder engagement, resourcing and agile delivery of capabilities.

Rob most recently attended the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University, and he previously served as the director of the Business Mission Area at PEO EIS. We’re happy to have him back on the team! Thank you to Lee James for stepping into the role in the interim; Lee is a proven leader at EIS, now leading the newly established Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence O6 project management office.

Congratulations to Adam Bross, recently selected as the Director, Business Management for Headquarters PEO EIS. Adam was previously a budget chief and a budget manager under the Business Management Division (BMD) directorate, and he steps into the role recently vacated by Mike McCaffery. Thank you to Deborah McLaurin who stepped into the acting BMD role during the selection process and who has served as resource management chief for more than a decade. Adam and Deborah are great teammates; thank you both for your great service!

GFEBS ASSUMPTION OF CHARTER

This month, General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) Product Lead Rob Porter will pass leadership responsibilities to Carlton White in an Assumption of Charter Ceremony on July 10.

Rob has led GFEBS, which provides secure, web-based, real-time financial data to the Army’s senior leaders, since June 2022. GFEBS became the first major U.S. Army enterprise resource planning (ERP) program to migrate its data to the cloud in 2020. Under Rob’s leadership, GFEBS has expanded its usage of the cloud and participated in everything from disaster recovery efforts, to using an Agile approach to software development, to monitoring and assessing the system’s defense against cyberattacks and intrusions.

Carlton comes to PEO EIS after serving as deputy director for the Ammunition and Combat Support and Combat Service Support portfolio at ASA(ALT). He also has held several positions with PEO Combat Support and Combat Support Systems and was deployed as a civilian to Kuwait, South Korea and Afghanistan. He is a six-time recipient of the Civilian Service Commendation Medal.

Thank you for everything, Rob, and welcome aboard, Carlton!

DCO CHANGE OF CHARTER

This month we say a fond farewell to Col. Mark Taylor, who has led the Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) team since 2019.

Some of Mark and his team’s many accomplishments include successful delivery of Deployable Defensive Cyber – Modular kits to Soldiers; continued development of the Army’s Big Data Platform known as Gabriel Nimbus; establishment of the Forge/Armory for the delivery of defensive cyber capabilities and tools to cyber defenders; helping set conditions for the Army’s Unified Network; and spearheading the Army’s first and only Budget Activity 8 (BA-08) Software and Digital Technology Pilot – a new approach and early Agile adopter realigning existing funds across multiple appropriations into a single appropriation dedicated to software technology and rapidly delivering capability to Soldiers.

As we say goodbye to Mark, we welcome back Mr. Bob Zoppa, who returns to us from Senior Service College. Bob is the former deputy project manager for our Defense Integrated Business Systems portfolio, where he helped with the overall management of seven major enterprise business solutions across the financial, logistics, acquisition and environmental domains, and prior to that, supported our Global Combat Support System – Army (GCSS-Army). Bob has also held positions with Army G-6 and PEO C3T. I know that Bob will carry on the fantastic work of delivering defensive cyber solutions to Soldiers.

Thank you, Mark and Bob!

ES ASSUMPTION OF CHARTER

Project Director Enterprise Services (ES) will hold an Assumption of Charter ceremony July 19 at The Forge, Fort Belvoir, welcoming aboard new Project Director Reg Shuford – formerly of GFEBS – and expressing sincere THANKS to Sergio Alvarez, who will return to his prior role as deputy project director at ES.

Reg comes back to PEO EIS from Senior Service College. Prior to that, he was product director for GFEBS, and prior to that, he served as acting product manager for the Army Contract Writing System (ACWS) program and as deputy product manager for GFEBS Sensitive Activities (GFEBS-SA).

PEO EIS owes a debt of gratitude to Sergio, who stepped up to fill the acting project director role in May 2022 — a position that he also held from October 2021 to February 2022. Sergio has also served as an enterprise architect in the Technology and Business Architecture Integration Directorate at Army G-1, and as the product lead and deputy product lead for the Enterprise Content Collaboration and Messaging product office within the ES portfolio, among other critical positions supporting our Army.

This is a winning team; I am honored to serve with these great leaders.

FOURTH OF JULY

Our nation celebrated its 247th birthday on July 4. America's Soldiers carry the patriotism and ideals of our country's founders with them as they serve our nation and defend liberty at home and around the world. We honor them and thank them for their sacrifice, and I hope you all had a wonderful 4th.

Thank you for your support to Soldiers, the U.S. Army and our nation.

I look forward to seeing many of you next month at AFCEA TechNet Augusta — stay tuned to this space for more details!

Connecting the Army. Working for Soldiers.

Ross Guckert, Program Executive Officer