On Jan. 29, 2009, Dennis C. Blair became the nation’s third director of national intelligence. He retired from a 34-year-long Navy career in 2002 as a four-star admiral.

During his Navy tenure, Blair served on guided missile destroyers in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and commanded the Kitty Hawk Battle Group. He also served as director of the joint staff and as the first associate director of central intelligence for military support at the CIA. In addition, Blair has held budget and policy positions on the National Security Council and has served several major Navy staffs.

From 2003 to 2006, Blair was president and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses. Most recently, he served as the John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the deputy director of the Project on National Security Reform.

Blair graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. He received a master’s degree in history and languages from Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, and served as a White House fellow at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Blair has been awarded four Defense Distinguished Service Medals and has received decorations from the governments of Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea and Australia.

Peter Tseronis serves as U.S. Department of Energy’s deputy associate chief information officer. His primary responsibilities include providing strategic leadership, direction, and advising on IT-related issues. Tseronis also is chairman of the Federal Cloud Computing Advisory Council.

Prior to his position at DOE, Tseronis served for eight years as chief technology officer and director of network services for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). One of his key achievements there includes implementing a multimillion-dollar budget to transform ED’s divergent voice, video, and data communications into an enterprise-level converged solution.

Before joining ED, Tseronis served as chairman of the Federal CIO Council’s IPv6 Working Group, a member of the Interagency Management Council for Federal Telecommunications. He was also a member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, a board member of the Independent Telecommunications Pioneer Association, and co-vice president of programs for the Association for Federal Information Resources Management.

Tseronis received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Villanova University and his master’s degree in information and telecommunication systems from Johns Hopkins University.

Capt. Roy S. Petty is the former commanding officer of the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command. As such, he helped strengthen the defenses of Navy networks and integrate similar efforts across the Global Information Grid. Thanks to his efforts, the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command became the first computer network defense service provider in the Department of Defense to receive a Level 3 accreditation through that program.

Petty is the recipient of the 2009 DON IM/IT Award, which honors outstanding contributions toward transforming the Navy and Marine Corps through IT. He also received the 2009 Federal 100 Award for his exceptional leadership in the IT field.

Jolene Lauria Sullens serves as deputy assistant attorney general and controller at the Department of Justice. She also holds the position of principal financial management and budget expert for the DOJ and is responsible for the development and execution of the budget and DOJ’s performance and accountability reports. Her responsibilities also include the issuance of the DOJ’s public financial statements, its accounting operations, and operational control over departmental funds.

As controller, Sullens is in charge of making critical strategic planning and resource recommendations to the attorney general, senior policy staff, the White House and Congress. She is also the lead executive responsible for implementing the DOJ’s Unified Financial Management System.

Prior to becoming deputy assistant attorney general, Sullens served as director of budget staff for the DOJ. There, she was responsible for the formulation and execution of the DOJ’s budget, and its performance-outcome measures. Before that position, she was deputy chief financial officer and director of budget at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where she managed all budget- and financial-management activities for many different programs.

In addition to budget-related positions, Sullens has held analyst positions at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Public and Indian Housing Policy, the Montgomery County Government, Office of Legislative Oversight, and the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, Intergovernmental Liaison Unit.

Sullens holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from the American University. She was the recipient of the Patricia Roberts-Harris Fellowship at the American University and the American University’s Arthur S. Flemming Award for Exemplary Public Service.

Ronald Ellis serves as deputy director of the Army’s Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information. Prior to his current position, Ellis was project manager at the Army Special Access Program Enterprise Portal and led the initiative to field a new communications network for Army Special Forces. The network allows the same kind of communications tools for classified information that were previously available for unclassified communications. The $6.8 million program is the Army’s first enterprise, compartmented network that provides secure data, voice and video connectivity at the top-secret level.

John Brosnan served as senior procurement counsel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before retiring Dec. 31, 2009. As counsel, Brosnan provided advice and expertise as Congress contemplated acquisition reforms that became law in 2008.

Lt. Col. John Persano is a former intelligence officer who headed Operation Golden Phoenix, the counterterrorism training drill that took place in San Diego, Calif., July 2008. For his role in planning and orchestrating the operation, Persano was given the 2009 Federal 100 Award (by Lomax ).

Mary Laureno is director of the Office of Beneficiary Information Services at the Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, Laureno manages the government’s toll-free Medicare call center.

Laureno’s past achievements include directing the successful implementation of the Next Generation Desktop program, which helped cut costs and improve service for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

George Bressler currently serves as supervisory border patrol agent of Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection. Bressler was lead coordinator for the 2008 Operation Golden Phoenix antiterrorism training exercise in which representatives from 150 organizations and agencies were successfully mobilized. The mission of Operation Golden Phoenix was to demonstrate technologies and coordinated team response to threats as participating agencies together practiced command, communication and logistical skills for handling various disasters

As senior procurement executive at the Department of Education, Perry brought together the CIO Council and Chief Acquisition Officers Council by helping the two agencies understands each other’s expertise. Also co-chairman of the CAO Council’s Acquisition Committee for E-Government, Perry provided the acquisition community with technology and writing guidance to help agencies transition to more transparent electronic processes.

In his current roles, Perry’s focus includes increased use of strategic enterprise-wide acquisition capabilities; improved performance-based contract requirements in support of and linked to program-strategic results; additional emphasis on contractor performance; and continued enhancement of competitive sourcing as means of boosting agency performance.

Perry holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in political science and business administration.