PEO Perspective: June 2021

Summer is always an “eventful” time at PEO EIS — full of charter ceremonies, retirement ceremonies and other events. This year is no exception. At the beginning of June, we will say farewell to our Chief of Staff Matt Russell. Matt spent more than 32 years on active duty with the Army and commanded our General Fund Enterprise Business System project office (now known as Defense Integrated Business Systems) before becoming our chief of staff. Now he’s heading to PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors. Best wishes to Matt! We are in the process of identifying his replacement.

MORE JUNE LEADERSHIP MOVES

As previously announced, Brendan Burke is leaving the deputy program executive officer (DPEO) position as of June 18. John Howell, our current assistant PEO (APEO) for Networks, Cyber and Services, will serve as acting DPEO until a new one is appointed. Aric Sherwood, presently acting project manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (DCATS), will backfill Mr. Howell by serving as acting APEO.

The Director, Acquisition and Systems Management (DASM) and the Strategic Initiatives Group will be merged into the new DASM position. Aric Sherwood was competitively selected for this assignment but will delay assuming the position until after he completes his acting APEO role. Ron Crevecoeur, director of operations for ASA(ALT)’s Office of the Deputy for Acquisition and Systems Management, will fill our DASM position in the interim.

Col. Jay Shell, currently the chief of staff, COVID-19 Defense Assisted Acquisition (DA2) Cell under the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment, will join us as project manager, DCATS at an assumption of charter ceremony June 21.

Meanwhile, Nancy Richardson has assumed the role of deputy project manager (DPM), DCATS. Nancy has been serving since July 2020 as the acting DPM — a developmental role for which she was competitively selected. She did a tremendous job in the acting capacity, so I am excited to bring her into the role permanently.

Tom Dunaway, most recently the Europe project officer for DCATS’ Power Projection Enablers (P2E) and a former XO at PEO EIS, will take over as product manager for P2E from Lt. Col. Howard Donaldson. The change of charter ceremony will take place June 25. Howard will be heading to a position with the National Reconnaissance Office.

And finally, Arthur Edgeson, the current deputy product manager of Defensive Cyber Operations’ (DCO) Cyber Analytics and Detection, will become product lead for DCO’s Applied Cyber Technologies when Lt. Col. Pete Amara departs for Senior Service College. The change of charter ceremony will take place June 4.

Congratulations to all. Stay tuned next month for more leadership moves.

RECENT NEWS & EVENTS

New Procurement Forecast Shared at May AFCEA Belvoir Webinar

On May 26, just a few days after my one-year anniversary at PEO EIS, I had the opportunity to brief nearly 200 attendees of AFCEA Belvoir’s May virtual webinar. Besides highlighting upcoming leadership changes, recent program milestones and progress made toward my priorities, I shared the top five procurements from our newly updated procurement forecast. Three of the top five procurements come from our DCATS portfolio, while the others come from Enterprise Systems and Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army. We are excited about these important procurements in support of the Army’s modernization priority and people strategy, and we encourage industry partners to approach us with ideas that are innovative, integrated and cost-effective.

Army Vantage Picks Up ACT-IAC Innovation Award

Congratulations to Miranda Coleman and the Army Vantage team for recently being named winners of the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s (ACT-IAC) 2021 Innovation Awards. The goal of the awards program is to recognize and promote the best innovations to improve services to citizens and government operations. Army Vantage was one of the 13 winners selected by a panel of judges from 169 total nominations. Learn more in this May 7 blog post.

 UPCOMING EVENTS OF NOTE

Army Birthday

Army Soldiers serve our nation with honor and dignity, bringing a variety of skill sets to their career choices as doctors and nurses, public health experts, scientists and researchers, cyber experts, coders and engineers. At PEO EIS, we are humbled to support our nation’s Soldiers every day. In honor of the Army’s 246th birthday, we will be posting a special commemorative video to our social media channels. We also will make social posts in recognition of Juneteenth, Army Heritage Month, Pride Month and National Safety Month, which also take place in June.

Army 365 Transition

By mid-June, PEO EIS and other Army organizations will be using Army 365 Teams for communication and collaboration. Army 365 (A365) is a cloud-based suite of products that will enhance productivity and collaboration across the Army, significantly increasing its ability to accelerate IT modernization, improve information and cybersecurity, make data accessible, and enhance user friendliness and mission/network readiness. Our Enterprise Content Collaboration and Messaging product office within our Enterprise Services portfolio has been supporting the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command in rolling out A365 Teams, which will replace the DOD’s Commercial Virtual Remote Teams upon its shutdown June 15. For our industry partners, this means that you will need to be conferenced in by phone to A365 Teams meetings for the time being. Eventually the plan is for external guest users to be able to request accounts through their sponsoring organizations.  

Have a safe start to your summer!

Ross R. Guckert, Program Executive Officer, PEO EIS

Connecting the Army. Working for Soldiers.