Roster Change

John Thornton has been tapped to direct the Federal Aviation Administration's Free Flight Phase 2 program, the agency announced last week.

In his new position, Thornton will help expand to additional locations five new technologies implemented during Free Flight Phase 1. Thornton also will direct development and deployment of several new Free Flight capabilities, including Collaborative Routing Coordination Tool, which is a set of automation capabilities that evaluate the impact of traffic flow management rerouting strategies.

Thornton will report to Charles Keegan, director of the Free Flight program office.

Prior to his appointment, Thornton had been communications manager in the Free Flight Phase 1 program since its inception in July 1998. From 1997 until that time, he served in various positions with the FAA's Air Traffic Requirements Service.

For more on Free Flight, see "Free Flight ready for next phase" [FCW.com, May 11, 2000].

***

Air Force tech officer Susan Kirkland last week was named by the 900-member Trail Boss Interagency Committee the 2000 Trail Boss of the Year for her work building the Air Force's Cargo Movement Operations System.

Kirkland demonstrated "exemplary expertise" in building CMOS, said Dennis Szymanksi, chairman of the committee's management council, which picked the winner. The award was presented at the General Services Administration's Trail Boss Roundup in Williamsburg, Va.

Trail Boss Interagency Committee also handed out three special achievement awards. They went to:

* The Coast Guard's Sandra Borden for her leadership in delivering the Ports and Waterways Safety System, which is said to be the largest information technology project in Coast Guard history.

* DOD's Jim Densberg for his "skill in applying Trail Boss principles to the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System and its re-engineering."

* The Internal Revenue Service's Timothy LaMoy for his efforts in deploying a dedicated mainframe test suite to support IRS' end-to-end testing for the Year 2000 problem.

For more about the awards, see "Air Force's Kirkland named "Trail Boss of the Year'" [FCW.com, May 10, 2000].

***

John Menkart this month left his job as director of government sales at Netscape Communications Corp.'s federal group to become vice president of worldwide sales at WeGo, a California-based start-up.

In his new role at WeGo, Menkart will focus on the Washington, D.C., market. The company creates portals and Web communities for trade and professional associations, including the National Mental Health Association and the California Farm Bureau Federation.

For more information, see "Netscape fed exec starting anew" [FCW.com, May 10, 2000].