Desperately Seeking an IPO Chief

Note from Executive Editor Allan Holmes: Nextgov Editor at Large Bob Brewin, who writes the Defense IT What's Brewin' weekly column, will soon begin to post daily items in a new blog on Nextgov.com. You can still receive the What's Brewin' newsletter every Monday, which will include the previous week's blog items. Below is a sample of the kind of items Bob will write about. We'll post a few more before the What's Brewin' blog officially launches, when you will be able to read What's Brewin' daily.

The Government Accountability Office on Jan. 28 faulted the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments for failing to appoint a director of a joint Defense/VA Interagency Program Office to manage health information sharing between the two departments.

That's not for lack of trying, the folks at the Military Heath System public affairs office told me. They said an initial recruitment for the program office it conducted last year was unsuccessful, and a new recruitment package for a director with an SES-rank is being prepared. Defense plans a national search.

So, if you think you can fill the bill -- and have "Chicago toughness" when faced with three inches of Washington snow, as President Obama called for yesterday -- I suggest you get in touch with MHS.

Until a new director comes on board, MHS said Rear Adm. Gregory Timberlake will serve as acting director. Timberlake is a trauma surgeon, who retired from active duty in 1989. As a reservist recalled to active duty in 2005, he has served as command surgeon for the U.S. Joint Forces Command, as well as medical advisor to the supreme allied command for transformation.