Luanne Pavco has been named president of Avantus Services as well as chief delivery officer for Avantus Federal, a NewSpring Holdings company, the company announced on Tuesday.

“I’m incredibly honored to join Avantus Federal to help advance the company,” former Wash100 Award winner Pavco said. “It is exciting to work alongside the industry’s most eminent leaders and grow the company to the next level of capability, client service and unsurpassed mission support.”

Pavco will take the helm of all aspects regarding the company’s delivery and customer efforts as well as overseeing Avantus’ Integrated Talent Management initiatives. She will report to CEO Andy Maner and continue to serve on the Avantus Board of Advisors.

Before assuming her new role, Pavco served as the general manager and member of Slalom Consulting’s executive team. She oversaw and set the company’s strategy for growth, and delivery excellence. Pavco also founded Slalom Federal and built the Public Sector through exponential growth and impact in less than three years.

She’s also held several senior executive leadership roles with Coopers & Lybrand, Price Waterhouse, and IBM Federal.

“Luanne has been invaluable to Avantus as a Board of Advisor and I am eager  for her to join our organization full-time,” said Avantus CEO Andy Maner. “We are doing important work at Avantus, and with Luanne  leading the charge as President of Avantus Services as well as our Chief Delivery Officer, she will help us continue to grow our company into a robust,  mission-ready hub.”

About Avantus Federal  

Avantus Federal, a NewSpring Holdings company, is a mission-focused services  and solutions company headquartered in McLean, VA. E3 Federal Solutions  and The Sentinel Company combined forces in 2018 and rebranded in 2020  to Avantus Federal. Avantus draws upon its heritage companies’ histories of  consistent growth and high performance in the federal services market.

The Senate voted 84-15 Monday to confirm Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve, as secretary of the Department of the Treasury (USDT), The New York Times reported.

Yellen’s confirmation made her the first woman to hold the top post at the Treasury. She is a labor economist who also served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration. 

As head of the Treasury, Yellen will help President Biden advance the potential $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package, implement the current administration’s tax proposals and oversee U.S. economic relations with other countries.

The report said Yellen plans to make changes to the department’s mission, such as using its authority to evaluate climate change’s economic risks and support clean energy technologies through incentives.

“It is the responsibility of the Treasury secretary to strengthen the U.S. economy, foster widespread economic prosperity and promote an economic agenda that leads to long-run economic growth,” Yellen said in her written response to lawmakers.

Christopher Hanson, a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has been appointed to concurrently chair the same agency under President Biden’s administration. He succeeds Kristine Svinicki who left the Department of Energy (DOE) on Jan. 20 after about 13 years with NRC, the Department of Energy said Saturday.

Hanson formerly served as senior adviser of DOE’s nuclear energy office and managed nuclear and environmental cleanup programs under DOE’s chief financial officer. He also handled DOE’s coordination with congressional appropriation committees.

The energy expert, during his time with the private sector, spearheaded energy-related government-industry engagements as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton.

“I look forward to building on Chairman Svinicki’s many accomplishments as the Commission takes on new challenges and faces new opportunities as nuclear energy technologies continue to evolve and uses of nuclear materials expand in the future,” Hanson said.

Five commissioners, each serving a five-year term, run NRC to develop policy and issue licensee orders related to nuclear energy.

John Seel, formerly software senior scientific and technical manager for Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division‘s (NSWCDD) strategic and computing systems department, has been named head of the division’s warfare control and integration department.

He assumed leadership of the latter department on Jan. 4, succeeding Michael Till who plans to retire this month after a 23-yer tenure with NSWCDD, Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday. Till and John Fiore, technical director of NSWCDD, have been working together to refine the division’s test and evaluation technologies.

Seel was a warfare systems engineer for Dahlgren, and has held roles at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also contributed active military service to the U.S. Army as a ground intelligence analyst.

Keith Jones, former principal deputy chief information officer at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has returned to the federal government as CIO of the State Department, FedScoop reported Friday.

He concurrently serves as assistant secretary-level head of the State Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management.

Jones previously held senior-level positions at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2001 to 2008. He also served as deputy executive director in the Department of Homeland Security’s information technology services office before moving to the USCIS in April 2012.

He retired from USCIS in October 2018 after more than 36 years of federal service.

His private sector career has included time as president and CEO of Edgewater Group DC, a principal consultant to principal consultant to government management consulting firm Deep Water Point and a strategic adviser for the Government Technology and Services Coalition.