Wennergren named Navy CIO

Moving quickly after the Department of Navy's chief information officer said he will be retiring, Navy Secretary Gordon England announced Dec. 2 that David Wennergren will become the department's new information technology leader.

The move gives the department some stability. Wennergren has been serving as the Department of Navy's deputy CIO for enterprise integration and security for the past several years.

Dan Porter, who had been DON CIO since September 1998, officially retired Dec. 1 to become senior vice president for strategic development at Vredenburg Inc., a small professional services company in Reston, Va.

Porter's departure marks the third significant departure from the Navy Department's IT leadership in recent months. Alex Bennet, deputy CIO for enterprise integration, left earlier this year, and Ron Turner, deputy CIO for infrastructure, systems and technology, announced that he also will be retiring.

Wennergren had been chairman of the Defense Department Smart Card Senior Coordinating Group, where he was responsible for the deployment of smart card technology across the DOD.

Prior to his current assignment, Wennergren was the head of the Plans and Policy Branch within the Shore Installation Management Division, in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Logistics). He was responsible for shore installation strategic planning and policies, as well as the Navy's ongoing Infrastructure Cost Reduction Program and shore restructuring efforts.