John Hall, assistant deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Army, has been appointed director and CEO of the Defense Commissary Agency.

He will take the helm at DeCA on June 4 and oversee the operations of nearly 240 commissaries across 45 states and 13 countries, with annual sales of over $4.4 billion.

“Commissaries help sustain our military communities by providing food security through significant savings, healthy food options, clean and safe stores, convenience and premier customer service,” Hall said.

He will replace Grier Martin, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs, who held the role on an acting basis in early April following the retirement of Bill Moore.

Hall previously served as deputy to the commanding general of U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, where he helped implement joint sustainment concepts and capabilities.

Before that, he was director of the defense element of the Health and Human Services/Department of Defense COVID-19 Countermeasures Acceleration Group.

Matt Sieger, a project director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected to lead the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s effort to build a successor to its Frontier exascale supercomputer.

Sieger will oversee OLCF-6 project planning and execution efforts and manage engagement with ORNL stakeholders, technology vendors and science users, the laboratory said Wednesday.

“Under Matt’s supervision, the OLCF will build its next leadership-class supercomputer and continue to fulfill DOE’s mission of delivering the most capable systems in the nation for open science to transform scientific discovery and technical innovation,” said Gina Tourassi, director of the National Center for Computational Sciences at ORNL.

Sieger previously served as deputy project director for OLCF’s Frontier project. In this role, he supported procurement and construction activities for the world’s fastest supercomputer, which reached full operational capability in 2022.

Prior to joining ORNL, he was a chief software architect at Knoxville-based start-up Efficience and a senior quality and reliability engineer at Intel.

Public health expert Mark Thompson has been appointed vice president of Westat’s clinical research practice, bringing decades of experience in real-world data and real-world evidence to the company.

Reporting to Sunitha Mathew, vice president and practice director, Thompson will conduct the organization’s work to expand its advanced real-world evidence analytics capabilities, Westat announced from its Rockville, Maryland headquarters on Thursday.

Mathew said that Thompson’s focus on applications of RWE and advanced analytics “will spark innovation and growth,” for Westat.

“Our team of clinical and epidemiological researchers, bioinformaticians, and data scientists is excited to work with him to address our federal and commercial clients’ challenges,” she said.

Throughout his more than 30-year career, Thompson has held positions at both government and industry organizations and has earned international recognition for his expertise in influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.

He previously worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during which he served as principal investigator on domestic and international investigations of disease burden, immunogenicity and vaccine effectiveness, including studies centering pregnant women, infants, older adults and health care professionals.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Thompson was a principal investigator for two of the CDC’s primary vaccine evaluation platforms.

Before his time with the CDC, Thompson led a clinical practice guidelines project at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. He has held a number of other private sector roles with large companies, including Ford, General Motors and AT&T, where he worked to better disease management and preventative care for their personnel.

In a recent role at Novavax, Inc., he advised the organization on developing real-world data to estimate the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mark Thompson to Westat. His expert leadership will provide invaluable insight as we grow our RWD/RWE and vaccine effectiveness portfolios,” said Westat President and CEO Scott Royal.

Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, has been nominated to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Reuters reported Wednesday.

A senior White House official said President Joe Biden accepted the recommendation of Lloyd Austin, secretary of the Department of Defense and 2023 Wash100 awardee, to nominate Brown for the position.

The official noted that Brown has deep knowledge of the challenges posed by China and understanding of the capabilities and perspectives of NATO allies.

Prior to his current role, Brown was the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, air component commander for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and executive director of Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff.

The Air Force general previously served as deputy head of U.S. Central Command, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command and director for the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff Executive Action Group.

Brown, a command pilot, also served as a National Defense Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia.

He would succeed Army Gen. Mark Milley, a four-time Wash100 Award winner, if confirmed by the Senate.