DOD acquisition reform chief departing

Professional Services Council

Stan Soloway, the man who has headed the Defense Department's acquisition

reform initiatives for the past two years, is leaving government to lead

the Professional Services Council trade association.

Soloway has served as deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition

reform since 1998. He also was tapped as director of the Defense Reform

Initiative in April 1999. In these positions, Soloway led DOD efforts to

streamline procurement and contracting across the department and to realign

that agency to better use private-sector practices and technology.

A date has not yet been set for Soloway's move to PSC. He will fill

the role of president, which was vacated in August, when Bert Concklin,

president for eight years, left to head the IRS' business systems modernization

effort.

With the announcement, Soloway becomes the second major procurement-related

official to recently leave government for the private sector. Earlier this

week William Gormley, associate commissioner of the General Services Administration's

Office of Acquisition, left to become senior vice president in charge of

consulting operations at the Washington Management Group.