Senate confirms VA CIO

Former Dell Inc. executive Robert McFarland was confirmed Thursday as the new chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Senate approved the nomination of McFarland to replace John Gauss, who left the post last June to take a private sector job.

McFarland, a Texas native, was Dell's vice president of government relations. Prior to that, he was general manager of the company's government sector.

While at Dell, McFarland oversaw the company's relationship with 1,200 military and federal government customers and more than 28,000 state and local government customers.